Poster of Che Part One

Che Part One

Biography, Drama, History

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Release Date: January 24, 2009

Where to Watch

Che Part One felt like George Clooney or Stephen Frears made it with Steven Soderbergh. It was torn between reenacting events that occurred on the ground and contrasting it to the stylish publicizing of the revolution without necessarily saying anything about the revolution. It felt very bloodless-2 dimensional characters reenacting events, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when a movie is 2 hours and 15 minutes, I either want a documentary where I’ve learned about the facts of a historical event or person or to feel passionately about some aspect of the film. I felt neither. I don’t think that a historical figure film has to be over the top in praising or dismissing a person, but it should have some emotion. Towards the last 45 minutes, as the movie abandons the contrast and focuses on the military strategies used in Cuba, the film picks up momentum as it contrasts the two sides in the conflict and their every day commitment to their respective goals, but by then, you’re thinking, “I have to watch another 2 hours and 15 minutes of this?” The best character focus techniques felt like they were cribbed from The Motorcycle Diaries.The last moments does give chills and lends a certain excitement and promise as to what part 2 may be like, but if that promise could have been somehow foreshadowed or alluded to throughout the movie, it would have been stronger.

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