Posted on 05/22/2008 1:17:59 PM PDT by Borges
Steven Soderbergh's four-and-a-half-hour film Che had its debut at the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday night. The film, which stars Benicio Del Toro in the title role of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, received mixed reviews, with Peter Howell of the Toronto Star calling it "elephantine" and predicting that if it is released as-is, "it will do nada at the box office and end up as el stiffo grande." On the other hand, Farah Nayeri of Bloomberg News said that Soderbergh "delivers enough moments of great cinema -- especially the majestic end -- to redeem himself in the viewer's bleary eyes."
Thus far, the $61.5-million film has reportedly attracted no bidders at Cannes. Not only does it deal with a controversial subject, but the dialog is in Spanish with English subtitles, and the length of the film makes only one showing a night possible at theaters.
At a news conference today (Thursday) Soderbergh proposed that theater owners present it as one movie for the first week, then split it up, showing the first part the second week and the second part the third week. He also suggested that a printed program might help audiences follow along. "That would be something fun," he remarked. He also quipped that the film presents a marketing opportunity: "It's all an elaborate way for us to sell our own T-shirts."
I wonder if the film shows Che executing innoncent people, torturing them, or throwing them into gulags. There’s a sweet irony to the free market rejecting this communist BS.
Chavez and Castro will buy tv rights and put it on state television. Comrades will watch. This WILL be on the test, comrade...
But I have to say, "the Che of Soderbergh" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Nice thing about being a conservative is if they did a movie about Reagan it would be about a minute long. SDI..Gorby tear down this wall...we won.
The biggest killer for any “artistic” dramatization and romanticization is for it to be so sluggish and boring nobody can stand to watch the whole thing through.
Wouldn’t change a thing about it. If “Che” turns put to be a ponderous, unwatchable screed, then it deserves to go straight to DVD and sink like a rock.
Propaganda need not be entertaining. It merely needs to be repetitive and without any competing claims on our attention.
Ironically, the Andy Garcia directed ‘The Lost City’ was partially financed by Hollywood but this film was not.
I’d rather watch a toilet bowl flushing competition than see this movie about a Commie loser.
Marketing opportunities? Just have congress write a pork bill and have it funded under the Natl. Endowment for the “Arts”.
The Chez of Berger, has a nice ring to it...
Looks like it skips over the whole mass-murdering thing:
http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas/?p=10524
Sounds like his Che has bad ch'i ...
Steven Soderberg is a superior director, but I will be damned if I will sit through a 4 1/2 hour movie. That was the big deal breaker even before reading more.
Nice thing about being a conservative is if they did a movie about Reagan it would be about a minute long. SDI..Gorby tear down this wall...we won.
They are making a movie about President Bush. I can’t wait to see it. They are going to make it fairly which is surprising because normally they don’t do anything fair. It is supposed to be out in October. I am so psyched to see it.
Who’s ‘They’. The Bush is being made by Oliver Stone isn’t it?
Who’s ‘They’. The Bush is being made by Oliver Stone isn’t it?
It might be him. I don’t know. I was reading an article about it in Entertainment Weekly. The only magazine I can read that is not ultra liberal. Time and Newsweek I can not read anymore.
A boring "homework" movie, by the director's own description. Just what a distributor wants to shell out money for, though I have no doubt that thousands of douchebag liberal professors will force their students (of any subject) to sit through this cinematic stiff as part of their grade.
More liberal filmmakers falling on their fiscal sword, to be celebrated at LA cocktail parties as martyrs to the cause.
How many starving African children could be fed with the money wasted on producing bad liberal message movies that nobody wants to watch?
Four and a half hours of tendentious boredom. Who does this guy think he is, Fidel?
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/858gbeyz.asp
Considering the source..it won’t be fair..
Oliver Stoned tried to get funding for a hitpiece film on Bush I back in 1987. When he discovered he could not get funding and a studio to release it by the 1988 election he abandoned the project.
This too will be an October Surprise hitpiece. One that neatly avoids campaign finance reform.
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