Che!

Richard Fleischer's Che! is neither the disaster nor the comedy classic of its lamentable reputation. True, it is the film of the T-shirt and often simplistic in its motivation - Omar Sharif's Che Guevara has to literally choose between tending the sick or passing the ammunition in one scene while in another fate lands a Molotov cocktail at his side at a crucial moment - but the film is an attempt at a minor revolution in epic biopic standards with its (staged) vox pop interviews and contrasting perspectives. Like Salvatore Giuliano, the drama is framed by the body of its dead protagonist and like Rossi's film it simplified and occasionally rewrites history. Unlike Steven Soderbergh's two-part epic, it's not obsessed with pseudo documentary trivia but opts more for an overview written in broad strokes - but then, with a running time little over an hour-and-a-half, it has to be. As a result, we are kept at a distance from Che for much of the first half of the film, the Cuban Revolution is rushed and not overly convincing and at times it turns into a typical studio picture shot on unconvincingly lit soundstages and at the Fox ranch backlot familiar from a hundred Westerns. Parts of it just don't work on any level, with the moment a Bolivian general talking to the camera excuses himself to go back into the scene seeming like an outtake from Woody Allen's Bananas. The film is at its best when dealing with the failure of Che's Bolivian adventure as he tries to impose his idea of salvation on a hostile population that neither seems to know or care it's oppressed as his followers and his ideals abandon him.

Sharif was an almost impossible to cast star - Genghis Khan, a Nazi officer (!!!) in Night of the Generals, a Jewish gambler in Funny Girl, a German schoolteacher in The Last Valley, a cowboy in McKenna's Gold - but is for once quite well cast here. Palance's Castro certainly isn't the Yosemite Sam cartoon figure contemporary reviewers painted him as either, though there's not much depth in the writing. The characters don't quite seem to know what to make of Che and you get the feeling the filmmakers weren't that sure either. Yet there's just enough leftfield (rather than left wing) ambition in this flawed would-be epic to hold the attention. It would certainly make an interesting double-bill with the equally despised (but, unlike Che!, subsequently partially rehabilitated) Walker.

Optimum's DVD has no extras but a least boasts a good widescreen transfer in the film's original 2.35:1 ratio.

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I love the fact this movie has been re-released on DVD, it probably took the latest two part remake as a platform to create the demand but its still the original and best.

Omar Sharif is perfectly cast as Che in this early movie synopsis of the life of sixties political icon and legendary guerilla theorist Che Guevara, the camera work and cinematography, music score and plot are all great, it works a complete charm.

The movie opens after Che's death with a shot centring on his corpse, the narrator quotes Che and there are black and white scenes and footage of left wing demonstrations around the world, it then proceeds through dramatised reminiscence from characters who loved Che, loathed him or both, this is interspaced with flash back footage of fighting which is very much like a western or old world war two movie.

Considering the era that this movie was shot in and that its a Fox production its surprisingly well balanced, I gave it four rather than five stars because I felt points about losing site of his own guerilla strategy or manifesting some kind of martyrdom deathwish where laboured at the finish. However this didnt spoil the movie which is thin on politics and thick on story and action anyway.

There is an irony in the extent to which the film is willing to credit Che's own theories on guerilla warfare, particularly the popularity of government or guerilla fighters, with his ultimate defeat. Instead of discrediting the strategic thinking altogether along with the political motives the government forces who execute Che discuss studying his book.

The portrayal of Che I felt was as fair as any book I've read on the historical figure who I feel has been both unjustly valorised and demonised depending upon the perspective involved. All in all the lasting impression is of a fighter who wasnt cut out for much else.