Che! is available as of this writing in a limited edition Blu-ray release of 3000 copies from Twilight Time
Leave it to Twilight Time to distribute a movie counted among the worst ever made. Like any diehard cinephile, the good folks who produced this HD release of Che! understand the love of watching movies applies to works of any quality. I might avoid an infamous clunker’s theatrical run for the sake of my modest bank account, but I would, honestly, love to be blessed enough to see every movie ever made. I’m not kidding. Sadly, as a broke mortal, I really don’t have the time or money to catch as many curious film oddities as I would like, let alone every total turd, exercise in mediocrity, or masterpiece. Thanks to Twilight Time, however, I can scratch one more weird but worthwhile flick off my list.
This is the part that normally goes, “Richard Fleischer’s film tells the story of…”, but this movie doesn’t quite fully tell anyone’s story. As a biopic, or piece of historical drama, this may be one of the most incomplete movies I have ever seen. At a tight 96 minutes, it barely manages to fit the major details (several of which are augmented or false) of Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s turn from a humble Marxist medic, to a Marxist leader of an attempted global communist revolution. From his success in (temporarily) freeing Cuba of its former dictator with the help of current dictator, Fidel Castro (played startlingly well by Jack Palance… WTF!?), to his failure in leading the people of Bolivia to freedom, one doesn’t exactly get a sense of who this guy was, or why he was doing any of this.
In a matter of minutes, Che (played beautifully by Omar Sharif) is spouting philosophical nonsense (none of it apparently came from the man who inspired the film) and executing traitors, suspected traitors, and other soldiers he accused of war crimes without trial. The movie wants us to believe this man who begins as an asthmatic weakling is instantly transformed by a single decision he makes on the battlefield. Two men off screen are calling for help. One calls for medical aid, the other calls for ammunition. Sharif, doing his best to look conflicted, finally decides he can help the fight best by providing his fellow soldiers with more tools of destruction, rather than tending to his dying comrades. It’s one thing to inaccurately stage an historical scene for the sake of drama, but to blatantly misrepresent a real life character in such a way is ridiculous. But that is only the start of such questionable writing. The movie goes on to paint a portrait of a man who is addicted only to the illusion of progress.
The movie also commits a few sins formally. In a series of “interviews”, characters deliver on screen monologues, speaking directly to the camera, in retrospect of several events. This could be a neat effect, but these scenes are played with such a cold-read, matter-of-fact tone, they instantly rob the film of any authority it might have had. It starts to feel more like the kind of historical videos that accompanied my high school textbooks, rather than something intended for the big screen.
In the end, we are led to believe that a devastating conversation he has with an ignorant farmer is what brought Che to his demise. After hearing an old man complain about the fighting giving him goat problems, this obsessively passionate revolutionary decides it is officially time to give up. Look it up, he didn’t go down so quietly. The scene could be great, if it weren’t a huge lie. Strange that a film with an ad campaign claiming it would “separate the man from the myth” would end with a false, somewhat mythic death, and have so little to say about what kind of man he was in reality.
THE PACKAGE
As always, Twilight Time has delivered a beautiful HD image, but the sound seems to have suffered a bit on this one. Despite this hollow, low-mix soundtrack, the disc offers some interesting special features, plus a booklet with a short essay by their resident film historian, Julie Kirgo (always a good read).
ISOLATED SCORE TRACK: Not a ton of score to isolate, but the great Lalo Schifrin (Dirty Harry) should always be given a spotlight.
VINTAGE FEATURRETTE: Interesting old behind the scenes special, shot on film, gives some incites on the production.
TV SPOT: Very cool old ad.
ORIGINAL THEATRICAL TRAILER: Always fun to see an old trailer.
