Che

CHE GETS INTO THE NITTY GRITTY IN CUBA & BOLIVIA

In Motorcycle Diaries (2004), director Walter Salles tracks the life of Ernesto Che Guevara from Argentina to Venezuela. Director Steven Soderberg’s current Che, which exceeds four hours in length, focuses on his time in Cuba and Bolivia, though press interviews and his speech to the UN in 1964 are featured as well, with Benicio Del Toro in the title role. Based on Che’s books on the subject, the film features wearying details on his efforts to promote revolution. Because cooperative Cubans are compared with turncoat Bolivians, serving as a kind of textbook on why some revolutions succeed, the Political Film Society has nominated Che as best film exposé of 2008.  MH