Saturday, August 12, 2006

Movie review - "Che!" (1969) **

Some people think Hollywood will make a movie out of anything if there's a buck in it - which might explain why 20th Century Fox spent millions on a biopic on the famous Cuban revolutionary. Che's appeal lives on today, mostly because of that iconic picture - one was found on Lindsay Lohan's bedroom wall in Herbie: Fully Loaded for crying out loud.
The film is an attempt to tackle Guevara seriously - it doesn't work for a variety of reasons (the pseudo documentary approach with people who knew Che talking to the screen, miscasting, a seeming lack of reality) but they should get points for trying. \
Omar Sharif is OK as Che, better than I thought he would be - he comes across as a real wanker, a fanatic who deserves to die, really. Maybe this is why the film was not embraced by audiences of the day.
The most effective moments are the ones of Che's final days leading up to his death in Bolivia - tension and drama is reduced by cutting away to all that narration. Jack Palance is also better than you might think as Castro, though he has too many lover's tiff type conversations with Sharif.

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