Movie can clarify vision of rebel Che Guevera

[Judi Lynn]

Movie can clarify vision of rebel Che Guevera
February 4, 2008

Last year was the 40th anniversary of the death of mythic, Argentine-born, physician-turned revolutionary, Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara de la Serna. Now, director Steven Soderbergh (''Traffic'') is shooting a film about Guevara, with Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro as Che. In the stills I've seen from location in Spain, Del Toro bears an uncanny resemblance to Guevara.

Reportedly, Soderbergh used recently declassified CIA transcripts as background preparation and there is a responsibility to correct a narrative grievously marred by misinformation, vilification and commercialization since Che's death. That includes the marketing of Alberto Korda's iconic photograph of Che, something that would have appalled him. A few years ago I spotted a teenager wearing a shirt bearing this ubiquitous image. I asked him what he knew about the man. After a moment's hesitation, he replied, ''I think he plays lead guitar for Rage Against the Machine.''

Soderbergh follows the footsteps of Walter Salesh's 2004 film ''The Motorcycle Diaries,'' in attempting to set the early record straight. Salesh tracks Che and his friend Alberto Granada on an eight-month trek across Argentina, Peru, Columbia, Chile and Venezuela.

When leaving his leafy, upper middle-class suburb (his father was an architect) in Buenos Aires in 1952, Guevara is 23 and one semester from earning his medical degree. The two young men embark on a last fling before settling down to careers and lives of privilege. They are preoccupied with women, fun and adventure, not seeking or expecting a life-transforming odyssey.

The film's power is in its depiction of Guevara's emerging political consciousness as a consequence of that experience. During the 8,000-mile journey, they encounter poverty, exploitation and brutal working conditions, all consequences of an unjust international economic order. Influenced by these encounters, Guevara turns away from a medical career, believing that while essential, medicine can only treat the symptoms of poverty. For him, revolution becomes the only way to address suffering's root causes, what Harvard Medical School Prof. Paul Farmer terms politics as medicine on a grand scale.

One hopes that Soderbergh's work builds on Salesh's film and provides context for Che's oft quoted statement that, ''The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.''

We do know that in 1954, while working for the Guatemalan government, Guevara witnessed the overthrow of the democratically elected, populist Jacobo Arbenz by a CIA-sponsored coup. This experience reinforced Che's belief that peaceful progressive change would not be tolerated by the Colossus of the North.

More:
http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-olson2-4.6247349feb04,0,7068751.story



Benicio Del Toro, Che Guevara

[magbana]

1. Great film review - thanks

Judi: Thanks for harvesting this film review. I hope it is as good as it says. I'm very glad that this film willl focus on Che's political beginnings. and beyond. This is one I will be sharing with others.

[Judi Lynn]

2. It is interesting to hear Solderbergh will be using "recently declassified CIA transcripts,"

to drive home the truth of the history, isn't it?

The more which is known, the harder it will be to continue the lies we've lived with so long.

I'm really hoping the age of the internetS will allow us all to get the research done we needed to do long ago, and also to learn that which was still classified information to keep us all completely ignorant, and get this done before the right-wing tyrants find a way to close it all down, or flood us all with even MORE disinformation while we search for the truth.

Looking forward to this film very much. Very dissatisfied with the earlier film, as it was almost empty of vital information, although it did help explain his early discovery of unbelievable abuse of the working class in Chile.

[bitchkitty]

3. Judi, you bring great news!

I'm going to see this one in a theatre!

One of my dad's decorations at his flat in Spain was a big poster of Che Guevara.

I love Benecio Del Toro, he's one of the great actors of all time.

[Judi Lynn]

4. I don't know much about him, yet. Don't see a lot of movies. Looking foward to this one.

I'm glad to hear he's a good actor. I've only seen his face in still photos. Haven't seen his movies. He does have a very different quality, doesn't he?

Your dad had a Che poster? A lot of people would DIE to have had a father with such an open mind. That must have made life far more interesting.

Right-wingers are TRULY dull. If it weren't for their hostility, they'd have no personalities at all!

[bitchkitty]

5. He is definitely a great actor -

he was in Traffic, and stole the movie; also in Snatch.

My dad definitely had a change of heart later in life. He was a retired Marine, then was in military intelligence for years (DIA). The last person you'd expect to open their eyes, but he was quite vocal about our corporate government at the end. I figure, he was in a position to know what he was talking about!