As such a controversial figure, reviewers and film critics everywhere are completely unable to part with their own convictions while reviewing this work of art, as audiences are while (not) watching it.
Irrespective of beliefs or opinions on the historical character of Che, i don't remember the last movie that felt as immersive as this one. Soderbergh's choices of camera angles, perspective, lighting and all the cinematic aspects give you a permanent first person angle in the action that is so involving that you actually die with Che in the end of the second movie...
In this sense, also knowing how Che's story ends, and regretfully waiting for it to come, proves to be an exercise in death as his own life was, accepting it in many forms with clear revolutionary ideals, fighting to the death against oppression and "sheephood" in a way that simply doesn't exist anymore. If anything, it elicits the need for an idealism long absent in mankind, and above all, the ultimate stand on collective thinking, for all that's good and bad about it.
The first movie feels like it had probably an hour or so of footage that was cut off, abbreviated. The second one has smoother transitions, so i guess that actually the story had to be depicted in a non linear, sort of summarized way to avoid the running time reaching 6hs... So one thing that disturbs me about the first part is that it feels like just an introduction to the Bolivian Diaries, and that it by itself could have resulted in a 2 part movie, since there is actually more happening surrounding the Cuban revolution than in the failed Bolivian attempt. And i think this is where Soderbergh stopped short on his convictions, he could have easily made this a trilogy, which with the same vocabulary and stylistic approach, would have brought up a broader view on Che and history itself.
All in all, this movie is a work of art, playing like a symphony (a bit fractured in the first part though), immersive from the first minute to the last. Coupled with the acting, where Benicio del Toro -is- Che, this is a highly underrated movie in America, where the terrorist witch hunt and the cold war that rages on in the heads of small minded people prevented it from grossing over US$ 300.000.
Irrespective of beliefs or opinions on the historical character of Che, i don't remember the last movie that felt as immersive as this one. Soderbergh's choices of camera angles, perspective, lighting and all the cinematic aspects give you a permanent first person angle in the action that is so involving that you actually die with Che in the end of the second movie...
In this sense, also knowing how Che's story ends, and regretfully waiting for it to come, proves to be an exercise in death as his own life was, accepting it in many forms with clear revolutionary ideals, fighting to the death against oppression and "sheephood" in a way that simply doesn't exist anymore. If anything, it elicits the need for an idealism long absent in mankind, and above all, the ultimate stand on collective thinking, for all that's good and bad about it.
The first movie feels like it had probably an hour or so of footage that was cut off, abbreviated. The second one has smoother transitions, so i guess that actually the story had to be depicted in a non linear, sort of summarized way to avoid the running time reaching 6hs... So one thing that disturbs me about the first part is that it feels like just an introduction to the Bolivian Diaries, and that it by itself could have resulted in a 2 part movie, since there is actually more happening surrounding the Cuban revolution than in the failed Bolivian attempt. And i think this is where Soderbergh stopped short on his convictions, he could have easily made this a trilogy, which with the same vocabulary and stylistic approach, would have brought up a broader view on Che and history itself.
All in all, this movie is a work of art, playing like a symphony (a bit fractured in the first part though), immersive from the first minute to the last. Coupled with the acting, where Benicio del Toro -is- Che, this is a highly underrated movie in America, where the terrorist witch hunt and the cold war that rages on in the heads of small minded people prevented it from grossing over US$ 300.000.