“Che” is a detailed and emotional biopic of Guevara's life. Directed by Steven Soderbergh upon a story by Peter Buchman and Benjamin A. van der Veen, "Che" is a technically remarkable film. It lasts for 257 minutes and it is split in two parts presenting the life of the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Guevara. There is the possibility to watch all four hours and 17 minutes of this picture without understanding why Soderbergh told this man's story, why he thought it was worth such epic treatment and why he handled his subject with such glowing veneration.

 

The movie is made of dates, names, locations and maneuvers, revolutionary zeal and soldierly strength, not emotion or human engagement. Guevara is embodied in this film by Benicio Del Toro as a taciturn, enigmatic figure who agrees to help start a Marxist revolution in Cuba. In the end, Guevara’s reasons for going through this revolution remain unclear.

 

Throughout the movie, Guevara appears at various stages, enduring various hardships. The idea is not to think but to admire, and why not to worship. The scenes are presented in an uninflected way, as though to create the real-life impression of what it must have been like to actually be there, on the ground, in this amazing time with this mysterious leader. He was assumed to have been brave and brilliant, dedicated to his cause and a rock star among revolutionaries. Thanks to Guevara, the poor weren't quite as poor and a corrupt regime was brought down to its knees, but a totalitarian dictatorship came instead. Fifty years after the so-called liberation, there still has not been any free election in Cuba.

 

Part 1, which lasts for 129 minutes, shows Guevara's first encounter with Fidel Castro, in Mexico. For the next couple of hours, the action shifts to Cuba; the scenes are shot in high-contrast black and white and show Guevara's reception in New York in 1965. He does interviews, goes to parties and eventually addresses the United Nations.

 

Part 2 appears to be more interesting than the first, though the sight of a worn, ill Guevara, sagging in his saddle is a little bit too much. This part lasts for 128 minutes and it seems to be the mirror image of Part 1: This time the action moves to Bolivia, where the government troops keep surprising the guerrillas and firing at them. In this part, it is all mostly about wet jungles and ragged uniforms, except that things get worse for Guevara. He is a foreigner who has difficulties in organizing his group, while his enemy was supported by U.S. forces.

 

If Soderbergh wanted to show that Guevara’s actions were indeed useful and heroic, rather than utopian and destructive, "Che" would have been a fascinating polemic. But "Che" falls down on artistic grounds and it becomes a noble portrait instead.