Che - Part 2

This film picks up about six years after the end of the first part of Steven Soderberghs's epic on the life of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. As that film ended the Cuban revolutionaries are on on the verge of marching into Havana as the last step in overthrowing the regime of Fulgencio Batista. Now it's 1965 and Che has resigned all of his official positions within the Cuban government in order to travel to Bolivia to lead a similar revolution against that regime. Well, as we all likely know, things didn't work out too well. Che tries many of the same tactics that worked so well in Cuba, such as recruiting local peasants to his cause, with much less success. A stronger central government and army in Bolivia, as well as American involvement, prevent Che's revolution from ever really getting off the ground. The fact that Che was a foreigner didn't help him win any support from the locals either, although he was, as an Argentine, in the same position in Cuba. Of course in Cuba, Fidel Castro was the leader and focal point of that revolution. The structure of the film is much like the first, a procedural which documents Che's efforts to build an army, and win the hearts and minds of the people. I liked this film a little better than the first, although it could certainly use a little editing as some of it is repetitive. Regardless of your political beliefs, Che the man certainly deserves some admiration as it's certainly hard to imagine today any comfortable high level government official giving up his or life to live in another country's jungle to try to organize a rag tag army. You'll certainly learn something about the man and his character from this film, and if you wear the t-shirt you may have some insight as to why.

Rating - 3 Stars (Light)