Film

Perhaps it’s easiest to begin by saying what Che is not. This sprawling account of two key periods in the life of Che Guevara (being shown in Chicago in its “Roadshow Edition,” with the two parts, broken by a 30-minute intermission, on a single ticket) is not a conventional biopic. There are no pocketbook-Freud explanations for what drove Guevara. It is not, as some angry commentators on the right have suggested, a pro-Communist propaganda picture. Though his role in atrocities is not mentioned, Guevara is not a hero; he’s an enigma. It is a startlingly compelling piece of filmmaking.

More of a guerrilla procedural, Che rejects contextualization and speechifying in favor of what feels like a minute-by-minute recounting of Guevara (Del Toro) and Fidel Castro (Bichir) battling their way across Cuba in their drive toward Havana in 1957–58 (that’s Part One) and Guevara’s disastrous Bolivian operation in 1967 (Part Two).

Though trained as a medic, Guevara finds himself commanding troops in the Cuban campaign. He and his men sweat and march through the forest and take in new recruits, mostly farmers who don’t even have weapons but are eager to fight the Batista regime. Bolivia, by contrast, is a debacle. Guevara’s poor health (he suffered from asthma) and a series of bad decisions make watching this campaign feel like getting stuck in the mud.

And yet it’s utterly riveting. Without deploying any of the flashy tricks or winkiness of the Ocean’s films, Soderbergh retains his gift for pacing. His refusal to provide easy explanations or judgment makes demands on the viewer, but they are demands absolutely worth meeting.