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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)
John Crowley's We Live in Time (2024)

1/27/2015

Che: Part One - The Argentine (2008) - Soderbergh's sober depiction of the Cuban revolution



+ Best Political Movie of the Year

A tense moment from the film on a poster for Steven Soderbergh's Che: Part One - The Argentine


QUICK REVIEW:

When 'Che' Guevara in the late 1950s decides to go for a coup d'etat of the American-supported president Bautista's Cuban government, he starts a spreading, violent revolution.

Master film-maker Steven Soderbergh (Haywire (2011)) here gives an external portrait of the legendary man and his Marxist-Communist politics. He remains, in my view of the film, an unreasonable, - albeit fascinating, - commander.
The film, which continues in a Part Two, is not awfully engaging, but it is technically second to none: Soderbergh's command of the digital formats, colors and the music (by Alberto Iglesias (The Constant Gardener (2005))), - together with Benicio Del Toro's (21 Grams (2003)) performance as the title lead, - are outstanding.
Soderbergh is taking a break from directing after completing 20 episodes of the hospital show with Clive Owen, The Knick (2014-15), and I for one really hope he'll return to the feature director's chair sooner rather than later.

Related reviews:

Steven SoderberghSide Effects (2013) - Modern people screw up in excellent thriller 
Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Restraint and extravagance 

Magic Mike (2012) - Soderbergh and Tatum score big with cheeky male strip romp 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark 








Watch the trailer for the two films here

Cost: Estimated 35 mil. $
Box office: 40.9 mil. $ (Che: Part 1 and Che: Part 2 together)
= Huge flop
[The joint budget of the films were 58 mil. $, which were gathered with much difficulty. Theatrically, the films have been a flop, doing best in Spanish-speaking countries (controversially, Soderbergh maintained that the films had to be shot in Spanish). Che: Part 1 only made 1.7 mil. $ in the States.]

What do you think of Soderbergh's Che-films, individually and as a whole?
What image of Che did you get from it/them?

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