Guerrilla (2008) Director Steven Soderbergh Writer Peter Buchman and Benjamin A. van der Veen (screenplay) Actors Benicio Del Toro – Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara de la Serna Franka Potente – Tania Lou Diamond Phillips – Mario Monje Kahlil Mendez – Urbano

Toronto International Film Festival Press Screening – September 8th 2008

Guerrilla (2008)

Steven Soderbergh’s second half to his grandiose epic, Che, is (I kid you not) preceded by an ‘Intermission’ screen. The last time I saw an intermission screen goes back to something like Lawrence of Arabia, which with all honesty the more I think about it has a lot in common with this film about Che Guevara.

The second half entitled Guerrilla opens in a very similar way to The Argentine. We open on a map, this time of South America, and proceeds to go through naming every country within it and ending on Bolivia. Sadly it doesn’t work as well this time around since unlike the map of Cuba where the story actually has scenes in all of those regions, this time the story is concentrated to Bolivia and therefore the geography lesson comes off a little redundant.

After successfully instating Fidel Castro as the leader of a free Cuba, Che goes to Bolivia to start a guerrilla movement there as well (his time in Africa is sadly omitted), however as we know Che’s fate this film cannot possibly end on a positive note.
Unlike in Cuba or at least in Soderbergh’s presentation of it, there is the impression that the Bolivian people were too weak of mind and body or simply did not desire freedom as much as the members of the Cuban resistance did. There are bouts of famine in the camp with several guerrillas trying to steal milk from their fellow men. Also unlike in Cuba the farmers do not give the support that the guerrilla movement needs and this is only exacerbated by the United States’ efforts  to train Bolivian troops to smoke out the guerrilla soldiers.

This is not a happy film, nor does it have the triumphant tone of The Argentine. It is beautifully shot by Soderbergh (who tends to be his own Director of Photography), then again it is a huge downer. Still, Guerrilla is a phenomenal film worth seeing for Del Toro’s performance alone and one of the final shots of the film is perhaps one of the most powerful I have seen in recent memory.

Related Posts:

1. The Argentine (2008)
2. Halflife in Just 60 Seconds
3. Speed Racer (2008)
4. Wall-E (2008)
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

Tags: Benicio Del Toro, Bolivia, Che Guevara, Cuba, Guerrilla, Review, Steven Soderbergh, TIFF, Toronto Internation Film Festival, War