“We execute. And will continue to execute…Homeland or Death!” — Ernesto Guevara

Well, instead of endlessly swooning about the release of the infernal “Twilight”, I think I’d spend my time watching out for more worthy films.

Just like this biopic about Argentinian doctor-turned-revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna; directed by Steve Soderbergh. Click here to see the trailer (and I guarantee it’s fantastic)

At 260 minutes, its a bit long (and still too short to chronicle the life of this rather contradictory figure. Healer and Executioner. Kind and Brutal. Practical and Naive. And so on). I’ve seen several pictures of him with his wife and children (I must really get that memoir by Aleida Guevara March, his eldest daughter), and numerous testimonies from other people who were close to him, not to mention read some of his writings and I could tell he has an enormous capacity to be idealistic, egalitarian and quite affectionate; But still many percieve him as ruthless killer (he’s known in some circles as “The Butcher of La Cubana”).

And it’s rather ironic that he was fully embraced by the culture he so violently despised.

But the people at Cannes film festival were (most of them anyway) raving about Benicio del Toro’s performance (he got a best actor award too).

As one critic put it: “A lengthy and complex portrait of Che as a revolutionary, a leader of a guerilla band, a doctor, a believer in obedience and loyalty, and a man willing to suffer for his beliefs.”

“Soderbergh shows us many different sides of the revolutionary as a
leader of men; as a doctor who heals not only his comrades but the poor
in villages; as a disciplinarian who believes in the rigors of
obedience and loyalty to the cause; as a lifelong learner who manages
to read and write while existing in the jungle; and as a soldier whose
passion for justice is fueled by confidence in armed resistance. The
chilling finale reveals that violence only begets more violence in a
never-ending cycle.”

I don’t think they’ll screen it here though. I’ll have to wait for the “pirated editions” then.