Che: Part One ****

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Year: 2008

Writer: Peter Buchman

Cinematographer: Steven Soderbergh

Very well made movie, a movie that shows, doesn't tell. It refuses an ending with closure, instead opting to give another anecdote showing Che's character. He is not said to be an idealistic hero, the scenes and screenplay and performance show him to be an idealistic hero.

Reminds me of "Z", "The Battle of Algiers", and "Army of Shadows". Soderbergh is not doing a Hollywood biopic, and that really works in his favor. This is an interesting movie, and I feel like I am learning about a character without being rushed through his whole life story. I like that it meditates on two periods in his life, the military campaign in Cuba (depicted in gritty, real, color), and the political campaign set in New York (depicted in sexy black and white) in and around the United Nations.

Not really concerned with setting up clear character arcs and Hollywood-like entertainment... this film has a very mellow, meditative tone, a documentarian sense of attention to detail... and yet it is not tedious or heavily philosophical.