Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

GazerRise Fantastic!

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

david-schanen I wouldn't expect a balanced film from Steven Soderbergh, but it's worth pointing out that this and its second part present a pretty idealized picture of Che and the Cuban revolution. Guerrilla warfare by definition often treads on some morally ambiguous territory and the picture of Che that's presented really makes him out to be the "good guy" in a revolution that definitely had some shades of gray. Lots of people associated with the Batista regime somehow ended up being executed, and Che never got his hands dirty? Hard to believe. That being said, the film looks very nice and Del Toro gives a great performance as Che.

Tcarts76 So this was a decent story, and as someone who will never be caught wearing a Che t-shirt ( and I will NEVER let my child wear one), I thought it was at least a decent portrayal of the man. At least for the time period this movie covers. The acting itself, in my opinion, wasn't stellar. Benicio Del Toro did a good enough job, but not enough to make me say, "wow, amazing." The style of the movie was almost like a documentary which adds to it's understated monotone dullness. In fact, for a movie that's suppose to be illustrating the Marxist Cuban revolution, you would expect to see a bit more compelling action. If this is the best they could do, I think Soderberg should have came up with a new name to release it under.There was some rather distracting scenes, shot in black and white, that were flash forwards of Che, getting ready, and addressing the United Nation. I believe the biggest reason for this was to hide something that casted Che in a negative light in the Revolution scenes. I applaud the fact that they did include a theme that most of the high school and college kids that wander aimlessly wearing this man on a T-shirt probably missed. That is that he was NOT a good military leader. I can't complain in this movie that they didn't portray him realistically because they did (...and I hate everything about the guy). There are scenes that show him given command of rear echelon troops, and continually removed from the frontlines despite his desire to be a "real" revolutionary fighter. In fact his rise was due to a friendship he had with Castro, and the fact that he, as a doctor, filled an important "winning the hearts and minds" of the poor Cuban people role.There was an obvious, yet understated political motivation for this movie especially when it ignores the fact that Castro was supported in some ways by the U.S. and did an immediate betrayal after his successful coup and aligned themselves with the Soviet Union.I have just started watching the second part and have some real problems, but I'll address those when I review part II, but I think it is somewhat telling that there is a big gap in time ( one that would be extremely detrimental to his "heroic" lore) between movies, That I am sure was done for a politically ideological reasons (But not enough to be over the top in a Oliver Stone bonehead way.SO Part 1 gets 5 stars for me. It is rather dry, boring, but does stick to some of the facts, and isn't an overboard Hollywood propaganda piece for the Marxist crowd.

badajoz-1 This is a dramatised documentary based on Che's diaries. You hear the words, but know no more about Che at the end of Part One than he was quite a nice guy with a strong belief in revolution (His views are expounded at length). If I had not seen 'MotorCycle Diaries' I would not have known anything of his background, because there is little here but a detailed reconstruction of his visit to the US and the lead up the the Castro regime in Cuba. And in the extras on the DVD we get the disingenuous remarks of Soderbergh that all he was interested in doing was getting the film made - sorry, pal, but you have to make something that people want to watch, not just walk away!

giovannimedrano I was really disappointed by the lack of preparation by Benicio Del Toro, his accent is that of a Puerto Rican imitating a Cuban (at times) only at the beginning of the film does he sound Argentine.The extras in the different towns are clearly people of shall we say,, Indian-mestizo decent - (they could easily pass for Mexicans, Guatemalans, Salvadoreans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Peruvians). you wont find that make up in Cuba. Columbus and the Spaniards made sure of that.The guy playing Fidel oddly enough has an Argentinian accent, So I paused the movie and then come here to IMDb and see that he is from Mexico, so I have no idea what is going on there with that guy.I was very disappointed at Benicio Del Toro, because if your gonna play a guy from Brooklyn you shouldn't sound like a guy from South Carolina.The only one that seemed to take the job seriously was the woman that played Aleida. she is originally from Colombia, and she at times did sound Cuban.VERY Disappointed ALL AROUND BY THIS PRODUCTION :-(