Q&A: Steven Soderbergh Makes Hay of "Che"

Steven Soderbergh, director of the two-part movie "Che, the Argentine," about the life of the doctor turned revolutionary, answers questions about the epic in an interview with the Oregonian here.

Q: Inevitably, you've been attacked for glorifying a Communist and killer.  How do you respond to that charge?

A: All I can say is if you can't sit and watch the whole four-and-a-half hours and understand that it's not a glamorization of his life or a commercial for his ideology, then you haven't looked at it objectively. And there are things on the screen that you have chosen to ignore or not see. I stand behind the movie, and I feel that in 10 or 20 years' time it will be viewed for what it is, which is a dispassionate portrayal of certain periods in his life. For people who entirely define Che by what happened at La Cabana [NOTE: a Cuban prison where executions were held after the Revolution], the only part that will be satisfying will be the last 30 minutes of part two, which will be like political porn for them. I had total creative control over the movie. Nobody was telling me what to do. His actions never really had an impact on my upbringing or the upbringing of anyone around me. I came into this not knowing much about him. And I came away admiring certain aspects of his character and disagreeing with certain other aspects of his character. And there's no question: we're very clear that this guy killed people. We're very clear on that. And he was willing to be killed. Again, if you're anti-Che, you've gotta be happy with the way it ends. He's executed, without a trial, in a 12-by-12 room, and he would've been the first person to say, 'That's the risk I took.'

Click on the link above for more of the interview.

The first part of the movie "Che, the Argentine" premiered here in Mexico City in mid-January.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: A image from "Che, the Argentine," in which Benicio del Toro portrays Ernesto "Che" Guevara addressing the U.N. General Assembly in 1964. Credit: www.cheelargentino.com/