January 12, 2009

The New Yawka

From the review of Stephen Soderbergh's che hagiography by Anthony Lane in the New Yorker:

The movie is actually two movies, excitingly titled “Part One” and “Part Two.” They had a brief run at the tail end of last year, to qualify for Oscar nominations; now, at their leisure, they are enjoying a wider release, and, for that full revolutionary flavor, I would recommend seeing them back to back, with a pit stop for a mojito in between.

I would suggest that if you really want to get the full revolutionary flavor you can have your father put up against a wall and have him shot to death. Then drink 1000 mojitos.

Mind you, anybody who goes to a double bill of “Che” expecting a handsome survey of his life, as I did, will be surprised by what’s not there. Nothing about the budding of his radical beliefs, which was rather too lovingly captured by Walter Salles in “The Motorcycle Diaries” (2004), starring Gael García Bernal as an improbably gorgeous Che. Nothing of the rebels’ entry into Havana, in early 1959, with Che at their head and Batista, the cowardly tyrant, already fled; “Che, Part One,” teasingly, is a triumphus interruptus, halting just short of this spasm of joy.

Handsome? Lovingly? Improbably gorgeous? Spasm of joy? Methinks that Mr. Lane is one of them their homosexuals that Che Guevara would have sent to a labor camp for re-education. The irony is thick.

Nothing of Che’s own tyrannical tendencies, as witnessed by the hundreds executed under his auspices during the revolutionary tribunals, or of his calamitous period as president of Cuba’s National Bank. And only a whisper of his entanglement in the Congo, in 1965, which he himself described as “a failure,” and which somebody—Werner Herzog, perhaps—might care to dramatize in a future film, although its Conradian futility might be hard to take.

Finally some reality.

Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at January 12, 2009 12:35 PM

Comments

There are definitely cracks beginning to appear in the wall of the Che myth. Eventually, he may go the way of Stalin in public opinion, but it will take more time and definitely more effort. Stalin never photographed nearly as well, and he never had such great PR. Besides, too many people have spent too much money on those damn T-shirts, and they're not gonna be too happy about tossing away their investment...

Posted by: asombra [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 12, 2009 01:04 PM

Benicio del Maricon was on the Stern show last week, and no one said crap about the real che.

What a bunch of d*ckheads!

Posted by: Cigar Mike Pancier [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 12, 2009 01:46 PM


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