Showing of 'Che' a coup for Brooks

Photo by Laura Magruder, Laura Magruder

Viva la revolución! Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir, with gun) and Che Guevara (Benicio Del Toro, right) make plans.

Director Steven Soderbergh's two-part epic "Che" is a bold attempt to humanize and de-romanticize the Marxist Latin American revolutionary who is now most recognized not for his struggle but as the defiant, bearded icon found on a million T-shirts and dorm room posters.

Although Soderbergh ("Traffic," "Ocean's Eleven") is one of today's most accomplished directors and star Benicio Del Toro won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his potrayal of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, "Che" -- which runs a daunting 268 minutes in its uncut form -- has been unable to find many theatrical bookings.

Photo by Laura Magruder

Viva la revolución! Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir, with gun) and Che Guevara (Benicio Del Toro, right) make plans.

Halved by distributor IFC Films into two parts, "Che: Part One (The Argentine)" and "Che: Part Two (Guerrilla)," the movie screens over the next two Sundays at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park.

"Che: Part One" screens at 5 p.m. Sunday, while "Part Two" is set for 5 p.m. March 8. Admission to each film is $10, or $8 for museum members. Each part runs over two hours.

Presented in conjunction with Indie Memphis, the booking represents something of a coup for the Brooks, and is certainly the museum's most significant film offering since "Killer of Sheep" in 2007.

In "Part One," the Argentina-born Che -- described by a journalist as "a Marxist, a soldier, a physician and the author of a classic handbook on guerrilla warfare" -- joins Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir) and other Cuban exiles in the battle to topple the Cuban dictator Batista. The film ends with a lengthy, bravura depiction of 1958's pivotal Battle of Santa Clara, and Che's hopeful declaration: "We won the war -- the revolution starts now."

"Part Two" is the hangover after the party. Set mostly in 1966 and 1967, "Guerrilla" depicts Che's ill-fated campaign to lead a revolutionary overthrow of the military dictatorship in Bolivia.

The two "Parts" do more than complement each other -- they engage in a dialogue, a Marxian dialectic. (For a somewhat similar relationship between films, think of "The Godfather" and "The Godfather: Part II.") Each half opens with a prolonged examination of a map (Cuba in "Part One," South America in "Part Two") and ends with a sustained rebels-vs.-soldiers assault. "Part One" is more epic (and is shot in the same wide-screen dimensions as such past biopic blockbusters as "Lawrence of Arabia"), while "Part Two" is more intimate, and includes the only shots from Che's point of view.

"Part One" celebrates revolutionary ideals, "Part Two" depicts futility -- even the Bolivian peasantry seems indifferent to Che's efforts, although its wariness is due in part to the presence of the CIA. Other parallels are less significant: In "Part One," Catalina Sandino Moreno ("Maria Full of Grace") is a female guerrilla; in "Part Two," it's Franka Potente ("Run Lola Run").

Probably influenced by Jacques Rivette's deadpan two-part Joan of Arc biopic, "Joan the Maid" (1994), Soderbergh's "Che" is methodical and undemonstrative -- intellectual, even. Soderbergh not only ignores the romantic struggles, personal melodrama and gossip found in most conventional biographical films, he doesn't bother to provide much narrative or historical context for the action. Those unfamiliar with Che will be shocked to learn, late in "Part One," that he's left behind a hitherto unreferenced wife and family. When "Part Two" opens, he's suddenly married to Moreno's character, although no romance was hinted at in "Part One," and no time is devoted to the breakup of his previous marriage. We get only snippets of Che's philosophy; he calls capitalism an "invisible cage," and refers to "the myth of the self-made man."

Occasionally, Che's growing fame is referenced. One scene in "Part One" finds Che at a Washington party, where he tells Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy: "There's no better way to give the people solidarity with its revolution like a U.S.-backed invasion." But Che's celebrity seem more effete in "Part Two," when he comes up with this idea to raise funds for the Bolivian rebels: "I'll write Sartre and Bertrand Russell to organize a worldwide fund."

"Che"

"Che: Part One (The Argentine)" screens at 5 p.m. Sunday and "Che: Part Two (Guerrilla)" at 5 p.m. March 8 at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park. Admission to each film is $10, or $8 for museum members. For more information, call 544-6200 or go to brooksmuseum.org.

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