Che! (1969)

Overrated and overhyped

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

What to expect of a "Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment" produced "documentary film" on Che Guevara in 1969? Certainly not the enthusiasm millions of left wing (or pro Latin America) people around the world share for the famous revolutionary until these days, but in this special case even not a sense of objectivity.Instead, Che! portraits the historical figure as an aggressive, bloodthirsty guerrilla fighter, who steps in to shot (suspected) deserters within the own troops where Fidel Castro hesitates. Or a Che Guevara who prefers sitting in a dark room signing death sentences instead of celebrating the revolution with the masses on the street.A fairly accurate story, mixed with poorly playing actors, and less South than rather North American perspectives on how the world should be (as an example, in one scene a Bolivian farmer talks in front of Che about the revolutionaries: "(They came) to free me? From what? Nobody asked what I want. Ever since you come to these mountains with your guns and your fighting, my goats, they not make milk. You frightened them. (...) Yes, I want to be free. Free from you..." and then pointing at the present Bolivian officer: "... and from you and all your kind. Why don't you just go away and let us live in peace?". This "judgement" pronounced by "the people" causes that Che deliberately stands up, passes the farmer and the officer to walk to his execution).If your interested in the "anti Gue perspective", watch this movie. But even then you will get quickly bored by the badly made film.

Richard Fleischer's biopic about the eponymous Argentinian revolutionary has been widely known as one of the biggest embarrassments in cinema history. Watching "Che!", I didn't interpret it as a particularly bad movie. What it is: extremely corny. As I understand it, the movie is historically accurate. It's just that, aside from all the overacting, Omar Sharif as Che Guevara looks silly and Jack Palance as Fidel Castro always looks as if he's about to fall asleep. In fact, Fidel adopts Che's comments as his own, just like Daffy Duck does with Porky Pig's suggestion in "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century"! There has been news of Steven Soderbergh's upcoming biopic about Che Guevara, with Benicio Del Toro playing the role. It'll probably come out better than this one. This mostly functions as an example of a movie intended as serious coming out really funny. Worth seeing for that.Also starring Cesare Danova (Mayor Carmine in "Animal House"), Woody Strode and Barbara Luna.

I saw this picture many years ago at its premiere and I never had a chance to see it again, but I would like to say something about it. First of all, Richard Fleischer is a distinguished director. See, for instance, "The Vikings", maybe the best adventure movie ever, or "Compulsion", a thrilling and alluring criminal drama. The problem with "Che!" is that it deals with too many facts and subjects in the while of 80 or 90 minutes. A lot of things are kept off-screen. Besides,the actors are completely unsuitable and the screenplay is poor. Characters and History itself is unfold in a distorted manner; so that, people who know a bit about Cuban Revolution fall disappointed. The movie grows better in the second half when Che tries to lead a guerrilla party in Bolivia. I still remember the last sequence showing a bedraggled and crippled Guevara, minutes before his decease, sitting on the floor of a schoolroom. A Bolivian Army officer calls in a village goat-herder , points towards wretched Guevara and asks the peasant : "Can't you see ? he has come here to free you!" The herder seems astonished, stares at the two men for a while and utters at last :"To free me ??? Since these people have shown up, shooting haphazardly, the goats have grown frightened , their milk dried and we have nothing to feed our children! So ... is this to free us ?" Next, Guevara raises and walks lamely towards the wall outside the door. Before him a firing squad is waiting. I don't know why, but I always fancy Guevara's last stand as depicted in this ill-fated flick.

If you are determined to see CHE! no matter what, I highly suggest you first pick up and read a good book about the man, Fidel Castro, and the Cuban revolution itself. Otherwise, you'll be utterly confused. The movie starts with the rebel invasion of Cuba, without giving us any idea about what Che had been doing up to that point of time. (Like: Why was he convinced to follow Castro?) We also don't really see what the political situation was exactly like in Cuba at the time. (How can we understand the rebels if we don't know what they are fighting against?) The movie continues to be confusing by subsequently not making it clear just how the rebels were able to build in force after being almost completely wiped out... or just how exactly they were able to weaken the government forces... or how Che transformed from a weakling into a strong leader (it seems to happen overnight!)... or why exactly Che got tired of being in Cuba. The subsequent unfolding events do get somewhat clearer once Che gets to Bolivia and starts his doomed campaign there, but you still don't understand the man. And with Richard Fleischer at the helm - a director who was usually only as good as his script - the movie sinks deeper into badness. The fact that Fleischer shows a complete inablility to film action scenes is just the least of his problems.And talk about miscasting! Omar Sharif as Che?!? He looks understandably confused and cowed in the role - deadly for someone who was reportedly a charismatic and cunning leader. But his performance is brilliant next to that of Jack Palance. Palance is unbelievably goofy as Castro, who was a strong leader in his own right. Reports at the time of filming state that Palance asked that Castro's "buffoonery" in the script be changed. Apparently that didn't happen. I can imagine that Palance subsequently decided to take revenge by hamming things up, especially since he also stated to the press after filming that he regretted ever being involved in this production.