Che Guevara

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: violence, avant garde, romantic, flashback

Review:
An Embarrassingly Poor Film.
CHE as written, directed, and produced by Josh Evans is an amateurish attempt to present the life of one of the more interesting revolutionary figures of the 20th century - Ernesto 'Che' Guevarade la Serna, the Argentinean physician who searched for meaning in his view of the world and joined Fidel Castro in overthrowing the dictatorship of Cuba.
Despite the presence of the fine actor Eduardo Noriega in the title role and Sonia Braga in a cameo role as Celia, Che's mother, the film is plagued by simplistic dialogue, lack of momentum, choppy editing, and a large cast that would have been a bit more credible had the film been shot in Spanish - the language of all of the actors.
Josh Evans provides no insights as to the person of Che or his motivations, but instead relies on the viewer's knowledge of the period to provide the missing lapses in story line.
And while many may feel that Che was the more important force in the idealism of the revolution than the leader Fidel Castro, it is doubtful that Castro was as tepid and uninspiring a figure as actor Enrico Lo Verso and the pathetic script make him appear.
With the 'other CHE' of Steven Soderbergh with Benicio Del Toro and a stellar cast due for release soon, it is not surprising that this amateurish film was released direct to DVD.
The story and the actors deserve better treatment.
Grady Harp.
Decent Movie, But Nothing Amazing.
Just finished watching this film.
Overall I think this deserves a rental, but not a purchase.First off Eduardo Noriega does a good job portraying Che. The cinematography is quite nice to look at, as well as Paula Garcés is very pretty to look at as well.As much as I really wanted to like this as a film I just didn't.
The way the story is told seems very sporadic, and jumps all over the place.
The shoot-outs never feel suspenseful, and the usage of the stock footage seems like it was used a a style thing, instead of using it to help tell the story.Also, the musical score.
Some films use a piece of music several times throughout a film and it just works.
This film however doesn't.
It seems like he just re-used the same piece of music because he didn't have any other stuff to work with.
It also feels like he is trying too hard to make you feel a certain emotion when there just isn't enough time spent to really understand fully what is going.Perhaps I am being a bit harsh, but I was left disappointed after the film ended.
I should also mention I got so bored the first time I watched it that I had to turn it off.Not a bad effort, but not great either.
Let's hope the Del Toro version will be more detailed, and feel more like a film and not a documentary..
Amateurish acting and dialogue.
This film is embarrassingly bad.
I don't blame Noriega; he has proved his acting ability in other films.
However, the script and the direction for this movie are absolutely terrible.
Every line is spoken as if by by a kid in a sixth-grade school production.The dialogue is nothing more than exposition -- "We need to take the fort.
It will give us a moral victory." "Let's go." "A large number of enemy soldiers are coming." "If you are lying, you will b punished." "I saw them." "Where are they?" There is absolutely no drama, no insight, nothing.
Just a flat display of a series of events, almost like an old-fashioned "life of the saints" type performance.The whole movie reminded me of a scene in Woody Allen's "Life and Death," in which a doctor, a soldier, and a prostitute were assigned to present a dramatic performance illustrating the dangers of venereal diseases -- stiff, amateurish, non-acting.
Truly awful.
Great story to be told, but this effort was, as previous comments noted, amateurish.
The most interesting thing about the production (?): What may be a "goof" in this home movie was after Che and a couple of others manage to survive the Cuban landing and fight their way through mountains, he appears to sporting a very nice wristwatch while performing doctor duties with one of the locals.
Hopefully it's a Rolex.
Anybody see "The Party" with Peter Sellars?
Opening is a movie shot of a 19th century Indian skirmish in which he's wearing a 1960's wristwatch.
The director loses it after having to shoot another take on account of this slip.
Apparently in Che they didn't have the time..
Was that supposed to be Fidel?.
Having seen the movie, "Fidel," we get a totally different Che, than the one in that movie.
In "Fidel," Castro is a kindly ideological revolutionary while Che is his ruthless hatchet man, killing anyone one comes in his way, and forcing Castro to accept communism.
In this movie Castro is the mean killer.
Che is the likable overly compassionate doctor, trying to bring a revolution to Cuba while fighting his asthma and randomly taking bullets because apparently he hasn't read his own book on warfare.The actor who played Fidel looked nothing like him, well he did have a beard.
The movie starts out in Bolivia 1967 with Che being captured near the end of his life.
We then flashback to the revolution and pre-revolution times.
The next thing we know Che is sitting in a chair smoking a cigar giving an interview to some white bread chick in Havana, post revolution.
During the interview we flashback again to the revolution.
During the flashbacks, we have duel scenes when the movie flashes ahead slightly during the flashback, such as when he meets a girl, he is talking to her for the first time, and then it flashes ahead to when they make love, then back to the conversation, ahead to loving making etc.
my head hurts, make them stop!
Please stop editing films on acid!The movie is pro Che, or somewhat anti-American.
One of my right wing friends would chide my overly left wing views by saying "Che was a weenie." This movie portrays Che as that weenie, someone who brings revolution in spite of himself.Not worth the view, even to a revolutionary.