Che: Part Two (2008)

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Writers (WGA):

Peter Buchman (screenplay) and
Benjamin A. van der Veen (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

24 January 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | War

Plot:

In 1967, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara leads a small partisan army to fight an ill-fated revolutionary guerrilla war in Bolivia.

Plot Keywords:

Bolivia | Guerrilla | 1967 | Che Guevara | Bolivian Army

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Benicio Del Toro	...	Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
Carlos Bardem	...	Moisés Guevara
Demián Bichir	...	Fidel Castro
Joaquim de Almeida	...	President René Barrientos
Pablo Durán	...	Pacho (Alberto Fernandez Montes de Oca)
Eduard Fernández	...	Ciro Algarañaz
Marc-André Grondin	...	Régis Debray
Óscar Jaenada	...	Darío (David Ardiazola)
Kahlil Mendez	...	Urbano (Leonardo Tamayo Nunez)
Cristian Mercado	...	Inti (Guido Peredo Liegue)
Jordi Mollà	...	Captain Mario Vargas
Gastón Pauls	...	Ciros Bustos
Antonio Peredo	...	Coco (Roberto Peredo Liegue)
Jorge Perugorría	...	Joaquin (Juan Vitalo 'Vilo' Acuna)
Lou Diamond Phillips	...	Mario Monje

Also Known As:

Guerrilla (International: English title) (alternative title) (USA) (working title)
Che (USA) (working title)
Che - 2ème partie - Guerilla (France)
Che: Guerrilla (Spain: Castilian title)

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

Spain | France | USA

Language:

Spanish | Aymara | Quechua | English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

UK:15 | Brazil:14 | Ireland:15A | Argentina:13 | USA:R | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Finland:K-13 | Sweden:11 | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | New Zealand:M | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

La Paz, Bolivia

Company:

Laura Bickford Productions

Trivia:

Cameo: [Matt Damon]as Fr. Schwartz, man with white flag, carrying out short negotiation in non-native Spanish.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the Bolivian troops are about to ambush the guerrillas crossing the river, you can see, that the machine guns belt is holding bullets with primers that have already being fired. The firing pin imprint on the cap is clearly visible.

Quotes:

Ernesto Che Guevara: To survive here, to win... you have to live as if you've already died.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2009) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Balderrama

Too kind to Che

Part One left Che on the road to Havana following the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship; Part Two jumps forward seven years, so that we miss out his time as a Minister in Castro's government and his abortive adventures in the Congo. Compared to the earlier film, this second element of the diptych is much tighter than the first in narrative terms, focusing only on Che's year in Bolivia (1966-67) and takes a straightforward chronological approach.

It has some of the strengths of the first film: the cinematography and direction of Steven Soderbergh, which give the whole work a lifelike, almost documentary feel, and the superb acting of Benicio del Toro who - even more than before - is rarely off the screen. However, the narrative is less compelling this time with the guerrillas seemingly going from one place to another with no obvious strategy. The main criticism of both parts though is that we have over four hours of excessively reverential treatment of an immensely controversial figure with little acknowledgement of the egotism that was at the heart of the doomed Bolivian mission.