Che Guevara was a complicated man, the different facets of his character waiting for a great actor to breathe life into his story: revolutionary, militant, celebrity, student, fanatic, intellectual, working man, and on and on. He was the asthmatic who became a doctor, the pragmatist who fueled violent revolutions, the martyr destroyed by the violence he sowed.

All that being said, I still don’t see how it takes four hours to tell the story of Che Guevara. Bringing this film to life was a passion project for Benicio del Toro. After his Best Supporting Oscar win for Traffic, del Toro approached Traffic’s producers and director (Steven Soderbergh) to see if they would be interested in the project. Eight years and four hours later, we have “Che.” Apparently, they’re only going to screen it as one complete four-hour movie for a limited time in December, then re-release it in two parts – Part I in January, Part II in February.

The first half, detailing the grinding campaign of Fidel Castro’s guerrilla army against the government of Fulgencio Batista, which culminated in Batista’s ouster in 1959, is intercut with scenes of a visit to New York that Guevara made in 1964 to address the United Nations General Assembly. Those bits, shot in a gorgeously grainy mock-antique black-and-white, offer a bit of visual relief from the long slog through the Cuban countryside, as well as providing an occasion for defiant revolutionary apologetics.

Its second half, recreating Guevara’s failed attempt to reproduce the Cuban revolution in Bolivia, might be called “The Passion of the Che,” in honor of the fanatical fidelity with which it walks its sanctified hero through the stations of his martyrdom. Guevara was executed in 1967 by the Bolivian military after his insurgency had been crushed. But the film is also, in a very precise and unusual sense, an action movie. I don’t just mean that it is heavy on battles and gunfights, but rather that action — what people do, as opposed to why they do it — is its primary, indeed obsessive concern.

[From The New York Times]

How long did it take to read that? Four hours? Didn’t think so. Oh wait, did I mention that much of the movie is subtitled?

“It was a lot of responsibility and pressure for Benicio,” says Soderbergh. “More so than for me, I think.” Acting in Spanish was another stress: Del Toro was born in Puerto Rico but has lived in the US since he was 13. “I can walk into the room and leave the room in Spanish. But I dream in English,” he says.

“I learnt a lot about Cuba, the Sixties, Latin American history. It doesn’t matter which way you cut it, it’s my roots. I read Don Quixote,” [del Toro says.] So did he see Che as a Quixotic figure? Del Toro looks surprised. “No, no. But after the revolution in Cuba, the first book that was published and given out free to the people was Don Quixote.”

On the other hand… “There are elements of Don Quixote in Che. But Don Quixote is an actor, a pretender. More like me. Che was a realist. He wasn’t seeing windmills. He was extremely daring and, I would say, quick to draw, to make decisions and go for them. He was a weird combination of an intellectual and an action figure, Gregory Peck and Steve McQueen, wrapped in one.

[From The Telegraph]

Critics are already falling all over themselves to worship this film and del Toro’s performance. While I respect the time, effort and passion it took to make this epic, I can’t help but wonder who will actually see the film when it’s divided up into two parts? It’s not like it’s “Kill Bill: Volumes 1 & 2.”

“Che” also stars Catalina Sandino Moreno and Franka Potente (as two of Che‘s lovers), Demián Bichir (as Fidel Castro), and Santiago Cabrera.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Benicio del Toro at the premiere of ‘Che’ held at The UGC Normandie cinema in Paris on November 18th, along with scenes from the film. Images thanks to WENN.

This week Ceilidh and I had an extended discussion about whether we find smoldering Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro, 41, attractive. Ceilidh says she thinks he’s “hideous” while I don’t find him super attractive, but see his appeal. I was unsuccessful in convincing her that he’s worthy. Del Toro is not my type at all – I like bald guys with goatees, but I can see how women find him hot. He’s got that commanding presence that supersedes looks, like he knows what he wants and he knows that he’ll have it. When I ponder whether Benicio is sexy that rumor about him getting it on with Scarlett Johansson in an elevator comes to mind. He’s the kind of guy who would make an otherwise shy girl engage in public sex.

MSat says she’s so-so on Benicio and that “Sometimes he looks like the Latino version of Brad Pitt,” but that “sometimes he looks like he should be pumping gas somewhere.”

I did a quick Facebook survey by changing my status and most of you who responded agreed with MSat that Benicio is either not hot, or has to do some work to achieve hotness. Four out of seven people said he’s not hot, with Nicole saying “I prefer my mens showered and not looking like they just came off a four day coke-and-whiskey bender.” Those that like Benicio were enthusiastic about his hotness, though.

Maybe Benicio is in the same boat with Joaquin Phoenix then, because I swear that guy used to be hot. Or we could lump him in with now-lumpy Russell Crowe. Phoenix seems a little more far gone than Del Toro. I’d rather get with Benicio than Crowe any day though. It’s probably that ponytail of Russells. That thing has got to go.

Bencio Del Toro stars in Che, an epic film about Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara. It’s out in two parts, this fall and starting early next year, in limited release.

Here he is at the premiere of Che on November 1. These are particularly unflattering photos. Credit: Bauergriffin

Benicio del Toro, Franka Potente and Julia Ormond were among the stars representing the film Che at a photocall in Cannes today. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Che is actually two films in one, Argentine and Guerilla and lasts a whopping four hours and 18 minutes. Most critics are raving about the film and Del Toro’s performance, and say it’s a front-runner for the top prize at the festival. Che depicts the overthrow of Cuban dictator dictator Fulgencio Batista, and has plenty of battle scenes and action.

41 year-old Benicio del Toro is Che Guevera. German actress Franka Potente, 33, plays former Stasi operative Tamara “Tania” Bunke Bider, the only woman to fight with the rebels under Che. You may know Potente as Jason Bourne’s love interest, Marie, in the first two Bourne films or as Lola in the 1998 German film Run Lola Run. She’s a great actress and I’d love to see her in more Hollywood movies.

Also shown are Julia Ormond, Rodrigo Santoro, Catalina Sandino Moreno and director Steven Soderbergh. Thanks to WENN for these photos.