El Che

Plot synopsis:
=== Part 1: The Argentine ===
In Havana 1964, Che Guevara is interviewed by Lisa Howard who asks him if reform throughout Latin America might not blunt the "message of the Cuban Revolution."
In 1955, at a gathering in Mexico City, Guevara first meets Fidel Castro. He listens to Castro’s plans and signs on as a member of the July 26th Movement.
There is a return to 1964 for Guevara’s address before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, where he makes an impassioned speech against American imperialism, and defends the executions his regime has committed, declaring "this is a battle to the death."
March 1957. Guevara deals with debilitating bouts of asthma as his group of revolutionaries meet up with Castro’s. Together, they attack an army barracks in the Sierra Maestra on May 28, 1957.
On October 15, 1958, the guerrillas approach the town of Las Villas. The Battle of Santa Clara is depicted with Guevara demonstrating his tactical skill as the guerrillas engage in street-to-street fighting and derail a train carrying Cuban soldiers and armaments. Near the film‘s end, they are victorious. With the Cuban Revolution now over, Guevara heads to Havana, remarking "we won the war, the revolution starts now."
=== Part 2: Guerrilla ===
The second part begins on November 3, 1966 with Guevara arriving in Bolivia disguised as a middle-aged representative of the Organization of American States hailing from Uruguay, who subsequently drives into the mountains to meet his men. The film is organized by the number of days that he was in the country. On Day 26, there is solidarity among Guevara's men despite his status as foreigner. By Day 67, Guevara has been set up for betrayal. He tries to recruit some peasants only to be mistaken for a cocaine smuggler. On Day 100, there is a shortage of food and Guevara exercises discipline to resolve conflicts between his Cuban and Bolivian followers.
By Day 113, some of the guerrillas have deserted and the Bolivian Army has discovered their base camp. Much to Che's disappointment Tamara "Tania" Bunke, Guevara's revolutionary contact, has botched elaborate preparations and given away their identity. On Day 141, the guerrillas capture Bolivian soldiers that refuse to join the revolution and are free to return to their villages. CIA advisers arrive to supervise anti-insurgent activity and training. On Day 169, Guevara's visiting friend, the French intellectual Régis Debray, is captured at Muyupampa by the Bolivian Army, which launches an aerial attack on Day 219.
Guevara grows sick and by Day 280 can barely breathe as a result of his acute asthma. On Day 302, the Bolivian Army kills Tania Bunke, Juan Acuña Ñunez, and several others in Che's forces in an ambush as they attempt to cross the Vado del Yeso after a local informant tells the Bolivian troops about the movements of the rebels. By Day 340, Guevara is trapped by the Bolivian Army in the Yuro Ravine near the village of La Higuera. Che is wounded and captured. The next day, a helicopter lands and a Cuban American CIA agent Félix Rodríguez emerges. The Bolivian high command are then phoned and give approval for Guevara's execution. He is shot on 9 October 1967, and his corpse lashed to a helicopter's landing skids and flown out.
In a final flashback scene, Guevara is aboard the Granma in 1956, looking out over the ocean. He sees the Castro brothers alone at the bow of the ship; Fidel is talking and Raúl is taking notes. Guevara hands a peeled orange to one of his comrades and returns his gaze to the lone brothers before the scene fades to black.

Tags: murder

Review:
Fascinating documentary on Guevara. There are some remarkable scenes of Guevara's youth in Argentina, as well as much footage of the early days in Cuba, circa 1955-59. The interviews with those who knew him are fascinating, particularly the ones with one of his old comrades in arms.I'll bet that Castro breathed an immense sigh of relief when he heard that Che had died in Bolivia; here was a galvanic, talented yet completely reckless and undisciplined man finally out of his (Castro's) hair. Che had been playing the charming Trotsky to Fidel's Lenin for too long.. An Informative Portrait of the Enigmatic Revolutionary. I was surprised to see just two other brief comments about this informative documentary, a moving tribute to an enigmatic individual, Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna. The point of view expressed is pointedly leftist and pro-Guevara, and the handsome, smiling, charismatic revolutionary is romanticized without apology. Accepting this perspective, one can better appreciate the strengths of the film. Eschewing the safe, presumably rewarding life of a doctor, Guevara opted instead to become a writer, philosopher, and revolutionary, hoping to overturn the poverty, hunger, and political repression that as an intelligent and idealistic young man, he witnessed all over South America, where the corrupt elite through authoritarian control routinely enslaved and oppressed their fellows in order to secure their own comforts and pursuit of luxury. Aside from Guevara's legendary participation in the Cuban Revolution that ensconced Fidel Castro firmly in power, he apparently played a notable role in such important historical events as the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, where he allegedly hoped for Cuban control of the missiles in order to launch a few of them at American cities. I hadn't realized that Guevara was born into an upper middle-class, Argentine family, nor that he was a lifelong asthmatic who became a medical student and a doctor, which played a significant role in his development. His background appears to be at odds with his reputed casual attitude toward personal hygiene. An important aspect of his personality, I think, is that he seemed driven to seek personal freedom, which was exemplified by his motorcycle journey through South America. I would surmise that this trait caused him ultimately to reject any routine or situation that hemmed him in, however promising and productive it may have been, including the typically interesting but conventional life of a doctor, the responsibilities imposed by his marriages and children, and even his role as a powerful government minister once Castro's band of revolutionaries became the established authority in Cuba. It probably also included his failed efforts to instigate revolution in the Congo and in Bolivia. In my opinion, the film might have explored more thoroughly what prompted Che's transformation from committed idealist to ruthless revolutionary and then powerful government bureaucrat. We see the medical student, the young adventurer, the political ideologue, the mountain guerrilla, and then a new character emerges that seems to have thoroughly eclipsed the old one -- the stern government minister who oversees the trials and summary executions of hundreds of Cubans from the Batista regime, and in the aftermath of the bloody purge, easily slips into the role of Fidel's right hand man. Elsewhere, it has been alleged that this change did not come overnight and that he also showed little mercy toward enemy combatants and supposed "informants and traitors" while fighting in the Sierra Maestra. Nevertheless, the difference in appearance between the severely barbered Castro and Guevara as a young lawyer and a young medical student, respectively, and their wildly whiskered appearance as guerrillas and political leaders, is interesting and also prompts speculation as to its specific genesis, other than the obvious effects of roughing it in primitive conditions. I noted in Castro's young, clean-shaven face something of the self-rationalizing, bullying aspect that becomes more evident in time, even when obscured by his beard. Che is more the handsome, intelligent, good-humored idealist who has not fully taken the measure of his compatriot, Fidel, while Castro appears more pragmatic, selfish, and calculating, an ambitious individual determined to retain control of the developing situation, come what may. This may help to explain Guevara's apparent early success as a political leader, followed all too soon by his effective banishment from the levers of power and his return to the bush as a recommitted revolutionary, a development that soon led to his untimely end.After his brief round of globe-trotting diplomacy capped by his public criticism of encroaching Soviet influence in Cuba, then his failure to foment revolution in central Africa, other sources confirm that the Russians (under Breshnev) wanted Che stymied and neutralized and instructed their clients in Bolivia not to aid him. Meanwhile, the Americans (under LBJ) directed the CIA and the Green Berets to train a hand-picked Bolivian brigade to hunt him down and destroy his rag-tag guerrilla force. Apparently, Fidel did little to help him, despite later denials of a developing rift, and may have secretly hoped he would be killed. The issue of Guevara's capture and subsequent execution are adequately covered but not explored in detail, and the footage of his body on display is instructive. Although such subject matter is more often gruesome and off-putting, in this film there is little of it except in this instance, where its inclusion is important to the story. One bears witness to the uniformed reactionaries who through the chain of command quickly carried out his death sentence, and the way they so easily excused themselves from what they had done, while something about Guevara, himself, eerily emerges as the photographer dispassionately examined his corpse from several angles. Clearly, he was dead, but he looked almost alive, like Christ following his crucifixion. One well may wonder if these pictures contributed to the local legend (in central Bolivia, where he was killed) that he was some sort of modern day, Latin American Christ. This footage is backed by the lilting lament of pan pipes and is the film's most poignant moment. The narrator then mentions that his body was mutilated and somehow disposed of. Other sources state that his hands were amputated, ostensibly for purposes of identification, as if his finger prints would be inadequate, and that his body was buried near a remote air strip. In the late nineties, his remains were recovered and transferred to a memorial at Santa Clara, Cuba, the city he liberated from Batista, prompting the old dictator to flee the island.. This is a fiction. This is a fiction, all three reviews so far refer to the title El Che, Ernesto Guevara, enquête sur un homme de légende (1997), which is a documentary.
This is a fictional movie about the life of Che in Bolivia, since arriving there up until his death. It's not a great movie, but it's watchable.. Good documented. Good documented film about Chegevara (this is not a fiction !). Don't scare if you don't know the story of Cuba, everything is (good) narrated. Only a few critics: - the way Chegevara was seen from outside (especially in Europe) is not really explained (excepted how he as seen by French communists) - nothing about the famous picture of him - the end of El Che (in Chili) in too long and not very (historically) interesting