Che: El Argentino

Benicio del Toro, Demián Bichir and Julia Ormond star in Steven Soderbergh's epic two-part biopic of the Argentinian doctor who turned global revolutionary. The first part of Soderbergh's austere representation of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara's contribution to global politics eschews the back story and personal insights that formed the basis of Walter Salles' Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and leaps straight to the Cuban revolution. The film kicks off in Mexico in 1955, with Guevara signing up to Fidel Castro's campaign to overthrow Cuba's right-wing Batista regime, and moves swiftly on to painstakingly document the events that occurred after Castro's insurrectionists landed on Cuban soil in 1957, ousting Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and establishing the island as a communist state. The depiction of the struggle for Cuba is intercut with a reconstruction of Guevara's landmark address to the United Nations in 1964, an event that launched the market for several million posters and t-shirts of the Argentinian, and established him firmly as a bogeyman in the American psyche. Part two is screened tomorrow evening.