CHE: PART ONE Galas

One of American film’s leading revolutionaries takes on one of modern history’s most famous radicals in this two-part epic. The first segment, THE ARGENTINE, opens with Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Benicio Del Toro, in his most extraordinary, charismatic and nuanced performance yet), as an Argentine doctor who casts his fate with Fidel Castro (a remarkable performance by Demian Bichir) when they sail to Cuba on November 26, 1956, accompanied by 80 rebels. Upon arrival , Che trained and fought, despite suffering from debilitating asthma, to become one of the major military leaders of the victorious Cuban revolution against the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In the second segment, GUERILLA, Che struggles to replicate this triumph, trying to expo rt Marxist revolution to Bolivia with disastrous results (Lou Diamond Phillips is memorable as the head of Bolivia’s Communist Party). In films ranging from SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE to SCHIZOPOLIS to the OCEAN’S series, Steven Soderbergh has demonstrated a determination to discover every diverse corner of the film medium’s expressive potential. He seems eager to learn how to master doing everything that film con do . Here, he tackles the historical epic with verve and formal innovation, while giving us a meticulous picture of Che’s evolution and learning process as a revolutionary. Perhaps because of a kinship felt with his subject, Soderbergh, in this sprawling biography, manages to provide a surprisingly intimate portrait of the artist.