Che! (1969)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Richard Fleischer

Writers:

Sy Bartlett (story) and
David Karp (story) ...

Release Date:

27 June 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

The Most Controversial Rebel Of Our Time!

Plot:

Biography of Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who helped Fidel Castro in his struggle against the corrupt Batista regime...

Plot Keywords:

Cuba | Fidel Castro | Bolivia | Mountain | Ambush

Cast

Omar Sharif	...	Che Guevara
Jack Palance	...	Fidel Castro
Cesare Danova	...	Ramon Valdez
Robert Loggia	...	Faustino Morales
Woody Strode	...	Guillermo
Barbara Luna	...	Anita Marquez
Frank Silvera	...	Goatherd
Albert Paulsen	...	Capt. Vasquez
Linda Marsh	...	Tania
Tom Troupe	...	Felipe Muñoz
Rudy Diaz	...	Willy
Perry Lopez	...	Rolando
Abraham Sofaer	...	Pablo Rojas
Richard Angarola	...	Col. Salazar
Sarita Vara	...	Celia Sanchez

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:M

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Ranch, Malibu Creek State Park - 1925 Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas, California, USA

Company:

Richard Fleischer

Trivia:

The film was seen as so offensive in Chile and Argentina that Molotov cocktails were reportedly thrown at the screen in some cinemas.

Quotes:

[Che is falling behind on a march]
Fidel Castro: Stragglers are sure to die, don't you know that?
Che Guevara: I'm not a straggler, I'm your rear guard.
Fidel Castro: No you're not, you're the company doctor. See what you can do for the men with blistered feet. You've got ten minutes.
Che Guevara: (noticing enemy planes flying overhead) It's too late for chiropody. The buzzards are already circling.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The American Experience: Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (#17.11)" (2004)

Sensitive Performance by Sharif Hoists It

It was brave of the makers of this film to release it in 1969 when the U.S. war against Communist North Vietnam still raged. It does depict a **failed** attempt to foment revolution in the Third World and on balance it is a negative portrayal of a professional revolutionary. Given the times, any depiction of Guevara and Fidel Castro showing them as human was a bold move.

In the U.S. most publicity has been garnered by Castro's bitterest enemies (those wonderful folks who brought you the **Elian** affair). Fidel has his supporters here, and around the world, also. Many of them seem to have posted comments at this site. The title of this movie is "Che!", not "Fidel!". Naturally, Castro's role will be a secondary one, a decision Castro's supporters seem unable to forgive.

Everyone knows how the story ends, and that is where the movie starts, with Che Guevara's body being transported by helicopter down from the one-room schoolhouse where he was apparently executed after being wounded and captured by an elite unit of the Bolivian Army. It's a strikingly beautiful, almost elegiac shot with the slopes of the Andes stretching to the horizon in the background. The movie proceeds in a semi-documentary style, the story told in flashbacks by Guevara's old Comrades (and some old enemies). Some of the Comrades, visibly aged, give their interviews from prison cells.

While Guevara's early life in Argentina isn't depicted, there is a soundless, striking scene early in the film of Cuban women protesting the dictatorial Battista regime, only to be massacred by Cuban soldiers ("We heard you calling, Cuba and we came...") that well explains what motivated young Ernesto and other youths from Latin America's upper classes to join the Cuban revolutionaries. From there we trace Che's transformation from idealistic medical graduate to hardened guerrilla fighter--summed up in a moment when in the heat of battle he picks up a rifle and leaves his doctor's kit on the ground.

I also disagree with the many criticisms of the portrayal of Fidel Castro by Jack Palance. Palance's movie career was distinctly on the down slope when he accepted the part, but he always had **macho**. Here he captured the 6'4" Castro's dominating physical presence in a land of mostly short statured people.

It is a real pity that this motion picture has completely disappeared. There is not a commercial version of it available anywhere. In the future, perhaps after Omar Sharif has died, this portrait of one of the twentieth century's most charismatic figures will be recognized as the rare achievement it is.