Che, the film

[Johnny Marr]

Some of my favourite films from the last few years have been biopics:
Control, Hunger and the Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I'm Not There's good
as well. Agreed that there's a line to tread between sympathy and
hagiography, and another between hatchet job and critically minded, but the
above prove it can be done if you understand the subject: their motives,
their acheivements, their failings and their context.

On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 12:01 AM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Soderbergh made a mistake in basing the film on Che's drab, colorless
> writings.  Biopics are usually pretty bad - you have a choice of making the
> person look like a plaster saint (Gandhi, Milk), a sanitized puff piece
> (Ray, Walk the Line), or some schlockly tell-all expose (Mommie Dearest).
>  Che (1&2) made him more plaster than plaster saint.  It's a shame, really,
> because a nuanced portrait would have been great.  Still, I was interested
> in Part 1, because it's not like there are a zillion movies out there on the
> subject matter (I Am Cuba is the best).  The second part was a depressing
> single-note slog.  You'd never know, for example, that while Che was camped
> out in the Bolivian jungle, he was sending amusing letters to his kids in
> Cuba about a fictional crocodile.
>
> Best biopics out there:  Lawrence of Arabia, Capote and I'm Not There.
>
> Re:  Che's daughter, this is kind of interesting:
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/may/03/cuba.angeliquechrisafis
>
> and
>
> http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39503
>
> Laura
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Lawrence Bryan <lebryan at speakeasy.net>
> >Sent: Feb 7, 2009 6:49 AM
> >To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> >Subject: Che, the film
> >
> >
> >I saw the film Thursday night. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give it a 4.
> >
> >It was shot in both color and black and white, the latter with
> >snippets of Che's visit to NY and his appearance at the UN. Since  for
> >some really ridiculous reason they used a shaky hand held camera
> >(Death to Rules 2 and 3 of the Dogme Brethern, IMO) with the usual
> >extreme closeups in the B&W New York scenes, I was forced to decide
> >wether to risk vomiting in the theatre and watch the screen or close
> >my eyes and listen to the Spanish dialog which I couldn't understand.
> >I tried compromising by using my hand to blank out all but the
> >subtitles at the bottom. That allowed the nausea to be lessened below
> >the barfing stage, leaving me with only a vague feeling of discomfort
> >for the rest of the film, over four hours. Bleh.
> >
> >See Che run through the jungle from left to right.
> >See Che run through the jungle from right to left.
> >See Che shoot people.
> >See Che smoking a huge cigar. (Especial one B&W close up where the
> >cigar was two thirds of the screen)
> >See Che get assassinated after getting captured.
> >
> >Really too bad as I have a great deal of respect for what I know of
> >the man.
> >
> >Lawrence
> >
> >
>
>
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