[Pen-l] Steven Soderbergh's "Che"

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

I was apprehensive about Steven Soderberghâs âCheâ before seeing it 
yesterday, mostly fearing a Hollywood directorâs attempt to âinterpretâ 
Che. While I didnât expect anything as outrageous as the 1969 âChe!â 
starring Omar Sharif as Che and Jack Palance (!) as Fidel Castro, which 
Roger Ebert described as having a dramatic level that âaspires toward 
comic strips,â I wondered what the director of âOceans 11â might 
possibly have to say about a revolutionary socialist.

As it turns out, âCheâ is a serious and honest attempt to represent at 
least one aspect of Che Guevaraâs career, namely the guerrilla fighter. 
The movie is divided in two parts, one based on âReminiscences of the 
Cuban Revolutionary Warâ and the other on the Bolivian diary. As a sign 
of Soderberghâs bona fides, he used Jon Lee Anderson as a consultant for 
part one. Andersonâs biography of Che Guevara is quite good, up until 
when the revolutionaries begin governing. Anderson was happy to write 
about Guevaraâs heroism in battle, but much less willing to give credit 
to the socialist experiment that continues to the present day, its 
fiftieth anniversary.

It should be added that Soderbergh has serious ambitions as a 
film-maker, despite projects like âOceans 11â that pay the rent (and 
which obviously he has fun making.) I strongly recommend âBubbleâ, a 
technically innovative murder mystery involving blue-collar workers in 
the rust belt. Another Soderbergh film that critics regard as 
high-minded and daring is âTrafficâ, a policier about the Mexican drug 
trade into the U.S. that was based on the British TV series âTraffikâ 
that focused on the connections between Pakistani heroin and British 
users. As I tried to explain in my review of âTrafficâ, Soderbergh 
failed to deliver the kind of subtle class analysis found in the British 
teleplay. Indeed, despite all the critical raves, he appeared happy to 
make what turned out to be an elevated version of Miami Viceâ as this 
excerpt from my review would make clear.

    Soderbergh is quite open about his desire to flatter law 
enforcement agencies in the USA, while simultaneously maintaining a hip 
âwar on drugs can not succeedâ âtude. In a profile that appears in the 
Jan. 3-9 Village Voice, Soderbergh states

    âI didnât want to come off like we had answers. The idea that some 
silly filmmaker after two years could sort it out would be outrageous. 
But there seems to be a huge vacuum in the public debate and I guess 
this is one of the few times I felt a movie could actually help. The 
funny thing is, everybody who sees it thinks it puts their point of view 
across, and I was expecting exactly the opposite. We had a screening in 
Washington for Customs, DEA, and the Department of Justice and they all 
came out saying they really liked it. The following night, there was 
some hardcore leftie NPR/PBS [!!!!] screening in L.A. and some guy 
stands up and goes, âThank you for making the first pro-legalization 
movie.â Then the other night, Commissioner Safir came to a screening and 
said he thought it was the most accurate representation of law 
enforcement heâd seen in a long time. And I have, you know, stoner 
friends who are going, like, âDude, yeah, great . . . ââ

Since the âhipâ movie-makers of today would never get caught dead making 
âpropagandaâ films like âBattle of Algiersâ or âLand and Freedomâ, I 
suppose that we can be grateful for what amounts to a positive image of 
Che Guevara. The portrait that emerges from Soderberghâs epic is that of 
a heroic, deeply idealistic and self-sacrificing revolutionary. One 
scene stands out. As the guerrilla army is headed toward Havana in 1959 
for the final assault on the old regime, Che (Benicio Del Toro) spots a 
group of combatants in a fancy Chrysler convertible. He speeds ahead in 
his jeep and after forcing them to the side of the road, orders them to 
return the car to its owner, even if he was a Batista official. The 
revolution must operate on different principles than the old regime, 
including the need to avoid personal gain.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/steven-soderberghs-che/


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