Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Che: Part One - DVD Review

**1/2

Starring Benecio Del Toro, Julia Ormond, Rodrigo Santoro, Demian Bichir, Oscar Isaac, Edgar Ramirez, Victor Rasuk, and Catalina Sandino Moreno.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Soderbergh is a great director. He can be experimental sometimes, glib other times, and here he's in more of an experimental phase, reminding more of Terrence Malick's Thin Red Line than anything else. This movie is about being along for the ride of a revolutionary who overthrows what might be an oppressive government, but it's about as informative as the Les Miz musical on French politics.

My history teacher told us how Che Guevara was a murderer who helped put Fidel Castro in power. The one portrayed here is more of the Robin Hood, T-shirt-inspiring antihero. It's not every insightful or informative, but it's beautiful to look at, and Benecio Del Toro gives a solid central performance. It didn't instill me with a desire to see Part Two.

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