Che Part 2: Guerrilla | DVD Review

Che Part Two: Guerilla is a difficult film to review, considering it’s the latter portion of an original film that was split into two parts for its DVD release (and for some theatrical presentations). Much of the critique is the same, but it’s also astonishing to notice how different the two parts are. Put together, they are about as good a biopic as you’re likely to see, but view them separately and only Part One can really be called a great film.

Part Two picks up shortly after the events of Part One, with Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara (Benicio Del Toro, The Usual Suspects) leaving Fidel Castro and Cuba behind to go into hiding and prepare for another revolution, this time in Bolivia. Arriving in disguise and using an alias, he is quick to form a new band of guerrilla soldiers to drum up support and fight the corruption in the government of President René Barrientos (Joaquim de Almeida, Ramon Salazar from Season 3 of ‘24‘), who is certain that if the rumors of Che’s involvement with this band of rebels is true, then Castro must also somehow be involved. But in direct contrast to the people of Cuba during that revolution, the people of Bolivia did not seem to want to get behind the rebels’ uprising. This leads to dwindling resources, poor decisions, costly mistakes, ambushes, and, eventually, capture.

As with Part One, the film is great to look at, with beautiful shots of the jungle and an interesting use of color that makes for a bit of a golden hue to many scenes. Del Toro delivers a command performance, expertly depicting the slow deterioration of Guevara’s health as his asthma gets worse and worse in the foliage of the tropical jungle, to the point where it’s affecting his state of mind and making him forget crucial details. Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) is also strong as Tania, the only female fighter in the band and rumored to have been in an affair with the married Guevara. Director Steven Soderbergh (The Girlfriend Experience), from a script by Peter Buchman (Eragon) and Benjamin van der Veen that was based on Guevara’s own Bolivian Diary, plays it straight, though, letting the story tell itself. That’s easy to do when you’ve got a star who, rather than just act the part of the character, inhabits the role and actually becomes Che, making it seem almost like a documentary.

As with Part One, there are no special features on the DVD release, but the sound and video are superb. An interesting choice, though, was to present the film in a 1.77:1 aspect ratio, as opposed to the 2.40:1 ratio of Part One. Could it have been to convey the tightness and how trapped the soldiers felt in the Bolivian jungle, as opposed to the hope and enthusiasm they had in Cuba in Part One?

With all of the good things written about Che Part Two: Guerilla above, and with its obvious importance as a historical document of a particular place and time as seen through the eyes of its main participant, why, then, does this film seem so empty and listless? Perhaps it’s because Part Two is basically the same film as Part One, but with opposite results for our hero – and who wants to see that? Because of this, the two parts as a whole would get a four star rating, but Part Two alone gets two and a half, even though there’s nothing wrong with it and it is very similar to Part One.

Movie rating – 2.5

Disc Rating – 2.5