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Ernesto "Che" Guevara may be an icon, seen on wall posters and students' T-shirts the world over, but few actually know much about the real man. Following in the footsteps of Walter Salles' acclaimed The Motorcycle Diaries, which looked at the pre-revolutionary years of the man who would become the icon, Steven Soderbergh's two-part biopic is an epic undertaking that looks at both his rise - as he and Fidel Castro triumphed in their campaign to overthrow Cuba's corrupt government - and his fall, as he attempted to repeat the feat in Bolivia but failed. Taken as a whole, Che weighs in at a whopping 4-plus hours. The film's distributors understandably deemed that commercially prohibitive, so it is being released in two halves, with part one (also called The Argentine) depicting his rise and part two (Guerilla) his fall. Despite the length, those hoping to gain much of an understanding of who Che really was are likely to be disappointed here: Che: Part One only covers a small portion of the man's life, and it doesn't really leave you with the impression that you know anything more about him.
That, however, is not necessarily a flaw, provided that expectations are altered before seeing the film. This is a film about an amateur army's trek through the Cuban wilderness, gradually taking control of more and more of the island. Soderbergh has shot it with his favoured digital cameras, but the technology finally seems to be catching up with traditional celluloid; it looks superb, with vivid colours (mainly green, naturally) and an appreciable depth and crispness to the image that some previous digitally-captured films have lacked. While Soderbergh reportedly shoots Part Two in a gritty handheld style, in this first half frantic camera movement is mostly kept to a minimum, with the director making use of static widescreen compositions. That might lead one to assume that the action scenes lack energy and impact, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In particular, the protracted street battle that concludes Part One - as the rebels fight for control of the city of Santa Clara - is well-staged and compelling.
Unsurprisingly, though, the journey there is a hard slog at times, for the audience as well as the characters. After a promising opening passage, the pace of the narrative grinds to a halt in the middle section and the interest level dwindles. There are occasional black-and-white interludes showing Che's later visit to New York in 1964, but these are not particularly interesting and just slow down the film's forward movement. After a while, it's hard to shift the feeling that despite the unquestionably good acting (Benicio Del Toro virtually becomes Che) and solid direction, it's impossible to really care. Soderbergh never allows us into the characters' psychology, despite some quite dialogue-heavy sections (it's perhaps a reflection that this project is Del Toro's baby rather than Soderbergh's). The film also suffers from basically just being half a film; it's hard to judge it based on watching just this part alone, but as it is, it falls short of greatness. Still, it's never less than interesting and Che: Part Two remains an appealing proposition.
The summary
Just half of a very long film, Che: Part One has some gripping high points separated by long, slow stretches. Only a watch of Part Two will finally confirm it as a success or near miss.
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