Che: Part One and Two

I am sure that all of us have heard, read and in case you are a fellow movie blogger, in many cases, even wrote about Steven Soderbergh and his alleged retirement from film making after Side Effects(2013) earlier this year and a HBO movie, Behind the Candelabra(2013). I have seen few of his movies and I really like some of them like Traffic(2000) and Sex, Lies and Videotape(1989). Moreover I really appreciate the way he goes from genre to genre, never confining himself to any particular type of films. However I am also aware that there is a whole lot of his work that I haven’t seen yet. While reading all the retrospective or top 10 posts about him, two films that I had not seen then jumped out to me – Out of Sight(1998) and Che(2008).

Che is a biopic of Earnesto ‘Che’ Guevara, an Argentine by birth who went on to become one of the closest people to Fidel Castro and one of his generals in his fight that eventually deposed the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. It consists of two feature-length films in which Part One talks exclusively about the Cuban revolution starting with the very first time he meets Fidel Castro in Mexico till the climactic battle of the two forces in Santa Clara where two armies go against each other for one last time. Impressed by Castro’s ideology and vision, Guevara joins Castro's 26^th of July movement and travels to Cuba with him on a yacht. As a learned man himself with his own ideology and a medical student before joining the revolution, Che quickly finds his footing in the organization and makes himself useful wherever he is needed. Shortly, he begins his steady ascent to become one of the most important and trusted people around Fidel Castro. He also plays a pivotal role in the final battle against Batists's forces in Santa Clara and after that in various roles in Fidel Castro's government

Guevara was an expert in Guerrilla warfare on which he went on to write many books. Various battles that we see throughout this film are a great example of this Guerrilla style, giving whole film some more authenticity. Narration of the film works on two fronts, first the revolution and second, his interview with Lisa Howard in 1964 while he was in US, for addressing the UN.. Their conversations give us a chance to know him better, to give his character more depth. We learn about his personality, his ideology and his work while he held many important positions in Castro’s government. While answering one of her questions, Guevara talks about his idea of a real or ideal revolutionary. He says an ideal revolutionary is the one that never stops, that always keeps on working. He probably thought of himself as one. So after Cuba settled under Castro’s leadership, he thought it was his duty to go and help others who might need it. Part Two concentrates on his efforts to bring about similar revolution in Bolivia.

In 1965, Guevara lands in Bolivia under a false name to help the Bolivian revolutionaries to take over the government. Right from the start, he faces opposition not only from the government but also from his own organization as they don’t want to take the arms and he feels it necessary for any coup to be followed by an armed insurgence if you want to stay in control. Slowly he starts to lose all his resources that made them successful in Cuba and government, once again with CIA help, tightens their grip around him. In comparison to first, Part Two is rather slow, grim and maybe even uneventful. But it also had something that kind of validated the existence of both these films for me.

After watching Part One, most important question I had in my mind was what’s so great about Che Guevara that he warrants a 4+ hour biopic? All I knew about him then was what we see in the film. Of course, there is no rule that decides whether a person is worthy of making a biopic or not. But still, there must be something about him that must have caught Soderbergh’s attention, something that made him important enough to be made a biopic of. In part one; he is one of the most trusted people of Castro, one of the top generals that fought with him from start and even the person who gives him that all important final victory. But when he went to Bolivia, in a spirit of a true revolutionary by his own definition, that act certified him ‘biopic worthy’ to me. Unfortunately, all his efforts elsewhere did not produce the desired efforts anywhere after Cuba but the fact that he left everything behind just to lend his expertise, reflected him in another light to me. Now I wanted to know as much as I can about this guy.

As I said earlier, Out of Sight and Che were two movies from Soderbergh’s line of work that caught my attention and both for different reasons. Out of Sight is a movie that almost everyone I know has praised. People seem to love this movie. On the other hand, Che had a curiously polarizing reaction. People either love it or hate it but what attracted me more towards it was the political background of this movie. After having seen it, I can understand why people might not like this film. It is a long, in many cases slow and over analytical film, especially second one, and if you are not interested in the political side of it, it might bore you. However I went over some of the Netflix reviews for the film and a lot of people seem to think this is an undeserving biopic because Guevara was a communist. I don’t agree with this reasoning, even resent it but I do understand where it comes from. As I tried to learn more and more about this guy, I observed that it is not just film that it’s not just the film that divides people but the man himself. He seems to be as respected, loved as he is hated. Given the kind of life he led, I wouldn’t expect any other outcome.

The only problem I had with the film was the lack of real relatable character other than Guevara. There are hundreds of characters that come and go during the span of two movies but except for Che, none of them left any kind of mark on me. Not even his wife who, before getting married, fights alongside him as his guide in Cuban revolution or even Fidel Castro, played by Damien Bichir, who probably had the second most screen time but has just a fleeting presence. Che, however, was brought brilliantly to life by Benicio Del Toro. It was an absolute delight watching him in that role. From meeting Castro till the end in Bolivia, Guevara goes through a lot during the course of the two movies and majority of credit for making him believable or mildly interesting even in the dullest parts of story goes to his constrained but powerful performance. Apparently Soderbergh spent a lot of time researching before he took this project on and it pays off handsomely as the authenticity of the film can be seen right from the word go. Perfect locations, settings and decision of shooting in Spanish go a long way to help as well. Second part does suffer from pacing issues and could also have benefited from some trimming. However for anyone with any interest in the politics, ideology behind it, this should serve as a great reference.

Rating(out of 5) for both Part I and II:

 

Upstream Color

I don’t remember the first time became aware that there is a film called Primer(2004) but it definitely wasn’t a while ago. I still haven’t seen it myself but it is in my Netflix queue and from what I have heard, I am definitely excited to have a look. I am just waiting for the right time. Apparently it is not something you watch casually. Shane Carruth, Write, Director and Star of the film, made quite a reputation for himself from it. When he released his second film, Upstream Colour(2013) about a month ago, he once again got everyone talking about it. I don’t know if it was or will be playing in any theaters around me but last week it was made available on Netflix Instant. And instead of waiting for big screen release which may or may not happen any time soon and for Primer to watch first, I decided to give it a try.

You’ll have to bear with me in this because there will be a lot ‘I don’t understand exactly what happened but something like…’ since Upstream Colour is that kind of film. If you know anything about Shane Carruth, if you have seen Primer or have heard about it, you would have some idea about that. In the beginning, we see a man working on making something from the plants or specifically worms in the roots of the plants. It looks like he is making some kind of drink with the worms in it. We see two kids. One of them gives other one a drink that is filtered by a filter with a worm in it. When the other boy drinks it, he imitates every move first boy makes perfectly with his eyes closed. I made two assumptions here; first, this kid grows up to be the guy we saw earlier and second, that drink probably has some hallucinatory effects.

Next, we see this guy lurking around suspiciously trying to find someone. His eyes fall on a young woman Kris, as we know it later, alone, perfect victim for him. He dopes her with his potion and from that point onwards, she is like under his spell. This proves my second assumption and I had to be content with 1 of the two since there was no way to prove the former. She makes her do a lot of weird things but essentially takes her money and leaves her be. When she wakes up, she does not remember what happened to her. She loses her job because she just vanished without saying anything, all her savings are gone, even the house she leaves in isn’t hers anymore. Basically her life as she knew it isn’t what it was and she has no idea how.

One day she meets a young lawyer, Jeff played by Carruth himself, on train. Jeff takes a liking to her the very first time they meet and even though Kris in completely unresponsive initially, keeps coming after her for a while. She lets her defenses down eventually and two of them start spending a lot of time together. As we get to know him better, we realize that even Jeff has fair share of his own problems. Even though he does a good job of hiding it, he is just as broken inside as Kris is. Rest of the film is about fighting their demons and if possible, getting to a solution, to the closure. If you have read someone say that this is one movie that everyone should experience for themselves, they are absolutely right. For that reason, I want to say as little of the plot as I can but at the same I think that I can give you as much as possible of the plot and for the exact same reason you would still find many things of your own when you would sit down for it. If you think I have given a lot of plot details here, I assure you there is much more that happens on screen for you to see and more importantly, to feel.

I have been watching The Story of Film: An Odyssey(2011) on Netflix over the last week. I still haven’t finished it but I am almost done. If you have seen it, you would know that narrator Mark Cousins talks continuously about films that tried to work beyond the boundaries of the medium in it. I am sure that Mark Cousins would love this film because I think this is the farthest you can get from conventional cinema without rejecting the format completely; something he loves dearly. It uses hand-held camera which reflects a lot of movements and majority of the film is shot in close-up. It uses deep focus, weird camera angles, harsh lighting and very few dialogues. There is rather more emphasis on the various sounds you hear in the background than dialogue. In lot of places story moves forward without using any dialogues and when there are dialogues, they are usually delivered very flat and you don’t always see the person talking on 

screen.

At various points, there are sequences that you don’t understand exactly or don’t really get the point of. Like just after Jeff and Kris meet, we see both Jeff and Kris behaving like they are still under spell and at the same time their perpetrator is recording some of his weird sound bites or what I think of as Groundhog Day(1993) memorial sequence of some couple going over the same fight again and again. I don’t think that any of these sequences were necessary because quite frankly I have no idea what was it for except [SPOILER ALERT] telling us that there were others like Kris[SPOILER END]. But I just went with it hoping that it would pay off some time later because it looked intriguing and helped in making the film more mysterious, not that it needed any.

I still haven’t understood a lot of things about this movie, most importantly last 5 minutes of this movie. I don’t know what exactly was the perpetrator doing? Why was he doing whatever he was doing? I didn’t understand where the name of the movie comes from though I am guessing it has something to do with those flowers they find in the stream. But… but I am neither disappointed nor annoyed by the ambiguous ending (Can I call it ambiguous even if it’s just because I did not understand it?). I am rather intrigued by it which to me is a success of the film – not alienating your viewer. I would be willing to give it few more chances and see if I can get few things more next time.

Upstream Colour does not follow most of the conventions, neither does it spoon feeds the viewer about its mystery and it’s very open about it. If you have seen Primer, you know that you’ll have to see this film multiple times and even then you may not understand it completely and Carruth doesn’t try to sugar-coat that either. However despite everything, I still believe it is an experience worth sitting through. Just keep your patience, try to understand as much as you can and who knows? It just might pay off!

Rating(out of 5):

 

Wrapping it Up: August

For Multiple reasons, this month has been an extra-ordinary month. I did a lot of things that I probably have never done in my life before but always meant to. Let me try and list down why?

1. This is definitely the most most prolific month I have had and by far. I don't think I have ever watched for than 30 movie in a month and this time I went over 35. Off course, main reason behind it is half of them are hardly an hour long and half of remaining are in the range of 70-80 minutes. But, even then it is a LOT.

2. 7 pre-1930 Silent movies. I have seen few Laurel-Hardy movies that I do not remember the names of. If we discount them, till the start of this month there was only 1 movie that would fit in this criterion - The Gold Rush(1925). This probably was the most learning experience of my life and I have Tyler to thank for that.

3. Even if I discount all just about hour long documentaries, all of them courtesy of whole 30 for 30 being available on Netflix, and count only feature-length ones, I saw 8 documentaries. Again, not a really big number but what makes it great is a fact that I doubt if I have seen 8 documentaries in my life before. Let alone in a month.

4. 4 Hindi movies in a month. Well, this definitely isn't the first time I am doing this but it surely is after a long time that I have seen 4 in a month. At least 3 years.

So, Here is what I did see this month.

August

Escape From Alcatraz(1979): I haven't done my research here but it looks like The Shawshank Redemption(1994) might have taken some inspiration from this and maybe not as much as Shawshank, this does succeed to a lot of extent. But, even for a movie that takes place inside a prison and most important plot development happens mainly during the night, it was so dark I had to take special effort to understand what's happening here. However, my main problem is for a maximum security prison, I felt like they got out rather easily. 

Hoop Dreams(1994): I had heard a lot about this movie before. So, I kinda had enough anticipations from it. But, unfortunately I didn't really feel much for it. It also felt like too long, even more because I wasn't much into it. I have to give him credit for covering a lot of important points in their life during those years but there were points where I lost my interest in either of the story. 

No Crossover: Trial of Allen Iverson(2010): From the same movie-maker who did Hoop Dreams, another documentary about basketball players. Concentrating on Iverson and how his trial affected everyone in the area of Hampton, this works much better because it goes into every aspect of that incident and from every possible source. Being only 82 minutes also helped, I guess. 

June 17th, 1994(2010): After watching couple of documentaries from ESPN's 30 For 30 series, I have been meaning to watch others for quite some time now. Unfortunately, I couldn't find those I was most interested in anywhere. So the fact that Netflix just released all this episodes on Instant watch is a very good sign for me. 

Without Bias(2009): Being a Celtics fan myself, I have heard a lot about how different Celtics would have been during 90s had Len Bias joined mighty 1986 Celtics, considered as one of the best teams in sports. However, this focused on repercussions of his death from a lot of different angels and as a movie, I am glad that they did that. 

Rashomon(1950)(Re-watch) : Not only it is my favorite Kurosawa but also one of my all-time favorites. After doing this post on Notorious(1946), I decided to continue writing about some of my favorite movies. This post is second in hopefully many more to come. 

Four Days in October(2010): Even though I have been an avid sports fan(I follow like 6 different sports over the year), I am not into Baseball at all. However being in heart of Red Sox nation for over two years, I wasn't impervious to Red Sox and Curse of Babe Ruth. This Story of how they beat Yankees in ALCS from down 3-0 scored purely on adrenaline rush it gave me, despite the lack of any knowledge of the game.

Bullitt(1968): Again it's Steve McQueen doing his thing and doing it well but I saw this for San Francisco and this post and it has plenty of both, Steve McQueen and San Francisco. That one chase in the middle through streets of San Francisco is like these streets are just made for it. However, Robert Vaughn's Chalmers was just as good and Jacqueline Bisset's British accent too.

Unmatched(2010): Like Cricket, I don't even remember when did I start following Tennis. Even as a kid, I remember watching Pate Sampras dominating Wimbledon's, all the antics of Andre Agassi, Steffi Graph and Monica Seles screaming at each other. So, this whole story of lifelong friendship between two of the greats - Martina Navaratilova and Chris Evert - wasn't new to me. But it felt good to kind of refresh my memory.

The Real Rocky(2011):  Story of Chuck Wepner who became famous for two reasons - one, for apparently no reason at all, Mohammad Ali chose him to defend his heavyweight title against and two, Sylvester Stallone attended that game and it gave him the idea of making Rocky(1976) based on that. We will probably never know who really used who but this is the story of his life and his court case against Stallone for copyright issues. 

Sunrise: Song of Two Humans(1927): As I said above if you can discount all the Chaplin's and Laurel-Hardy's I saw as a kid, this might well be my first silent movie. It is innocent, it was pure, it was like one of those bed-time stories and to tell you the truth, knowing that it's from 1927, 'And they leaved happily ever after' was all I expecting and I got exactly that ans SO MUCH more. 

Mohammad and Larry(2010): I have no idea why but despite being part of 30 for 30 which aired in 2009-10, it is listed as an 1980 documentary. Though I am no expert, this must be the most humiliating fight in Mohammad Ali's career. It was nice to see him being Ali though, going into the fight against everyone's advice or wish, just because he can and he wanted to. 

Mother India(1957)(Hindi): I seriously do not remember the last time I saw an old Hindi movie, must have been years and I am glad I did for this post. For some reason, I had an impression of this being much more cry fest and melodramatic than it is. However, after watching it I might even consider it to be one of my favorites. 

The 16th Man(2010): Documentary version of Invictus(2009) about South African Rugby team's victory in world Cup of 1995 and the role Nelson Mandela played in it to inspire them and going forward to use this event to unite their country together. It's actually incredibly moving and very well done. Morgan Freeman as narrator also helps. 

Upkar(1967)(Hindi): I specifically chose this movie for this post here so that I will have a reason to see it. I have been procrastinating it for a long time and as it turns out for a good reason. This movie looks like it was made as a reason to promote government policies and I have to praise it for such an attempt but unfortunately, there is not much to recommend beyond that here. 

Once Brothers(2010): When I saw whole 30 For 30 on Netflix, this was one documentary that I have been waiting to see and I am really happy that without any doubt, this is THE Best of all 30 For 30 documentaries I have seen and I have seen almost a dozen of them by now. This is story of Vlade Divac, Drazen Petrovic and their World Champion Yugoslavian Basketball Team and how their friendship suffered due to the civil war in their country which put these two friends in enemy camps. 

Nosferatu(1922): I am sure that I can find 100 flaws in this movie but I can not overlook the fact that it was released in 1927 and considering this fact, this movie is just Great !! On top of that, though I wasn't really scared(I very rarely get scared in movies), I had goosebumps on multiple occasions and that is much more than what I can say about whole lot of modern so-called scary movies. And BTW, this is the oldest movie I have seen. Ever. 

Battleship Potemkin(1925): Whatever I said above. When I first read the short description of it on Netflix, I was more intrigued as to how will Eisenstein make a silent movie on this subject and as I suspected, this one felt much more like a documentary than movie and though most of the scenes were way longer than they should have been, still 1925. So, I am not complaining. 

Invasion of Body Snatchers(1978): When it comes to scary movies, I am starting to think that there is something genetically wrong in me. Whenever natural reaction is to be scared, I am either bored or disgusted. Now this movie is not a bad movie at all. It is well made, I even think it is a decent enough idea but all the time, I was staring at screen like someone made me sit there and watch it as a punishment. 

Marion Jones: Press Pause(2010): One good thing about it is I had no idea what Mario Jones was up to after he submitted all her medals. Now, I do. But bad thing is I still have no idea what the director was aiming for here. I don't know. To me, it looked like he did it for the sake of it, with no real aim or direction which is sad because at least from this documentary, it feels like Jones deserves more.

Man on Wire(2008): So after so many 30 for 30 episodes, I finally got to a real documentary for a little change and an Oscar winning, no less. Incredible story of Phillipe Petit's daring routine of tightrope walking between Twin Towers of WTC in 1974. I swear if someone told me something like this happened, I would have called him a liar and yet here I am watching this. And Phillipe even looked sane, I mean kinda.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams(2010): Chauvet caves in southern France holds some of the oldest known pictorial representation of any kind to human. Given their importance culturally as well as anthropologically, these caves are sealed to preserve their natural beauty but Werner Herzog somehow got nod to document them and show them to the world. It is really fascinating to see those painting were made 32000 years ago given how fresh they look and how detailed they are.

The General(1926): My first ever Bustor Keaton and it was pure bliss. I loved that it had a proper format, it has a story, starting and end. There are lot of small things that work well and he had me laughing out loud on multiple occasions but what's even better is they are really effective to bring the whole film together. His timing was superb throughout and soundtrack was amazing. 

Sherlock Jr.(1924): This second venture with Bustor Keaton actually didn't work as well as The General basically because plot felt too weak, too much coincidental. Even The General had quite a few coincidental moments to evoke laughter but the point is they didn't seem to be forced. Keaton is usually compared with Chaplin and I know he had his hits and misses as well. For me, this was a miss. 

Fire In Babylon(2010): For over a year, since I heard about this documentary, I have been meaning to see it. I never saw any of them play but I know about dominance of West Indian cricket for almost two decades. Likes of Greenidge, Haynes, Lloyd, Richards and their bowlers Garner, Andy Roberts, Holding and Croft were great individually but put together and they became just invincible and remained unbeaten for 15 years. 15 Years ! 

Good Night, and Good Luck(2005)(Re-watch): Sometimes people surprise me with their reactions about some movies. Good Night, and Good Luck is one such example when one of my friends called it 'weird'. I know that people can have very different opinion about certain movie but weird is not the word I will ever associate with this movie and hence here I am, defending it. 

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance(2002): I still don't know if there is a hero or villain or at least anti hero, someone we are suppose to root for, in this movie. It looked like it shifted it's focus somewhere in the middle and ended up on neither of the ends. Also, maybe it is my fault but after a while, I got tired of not knowing what is going on screen all the time. We usually understand it few scenes after but it got under my skin. 

The U(2009): Story of Rise and fall of University of Miami Football team over 80s and 90s. They became prominent players on national scale in early 80s from nowhere to win their first National Championship in 1983 and won 3 more championships in next 10 years. However, since then it was going down. It is no doubt that they were really good but to tell you the truth, with their attitude like that I just did not care where they land.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance(2005): For multiple reasons, I think this is the best of Park's vengeance trilogy. For once, I think Oldboy(2003) is one crazy movie and you can even say that it's a better film but I don't have much more to say on it and you know my opinion on Mr. Vengeance above. It is a pretty straight forward revenge story in comparison to other two but Lady Vengeance has a much better format to it. 

Bombay to Goa(1972)(Rewatch)(Hindi): There are so many reasons not to like this movie. It is actually stupid, bit too slap-sticky, hasn't aged well and too amateur technically. But, by God, give me this over so many other so called comedy movies and there are only 2 reasons - 1. Mehmood 2. Array of side characters. 

Shanghai(2012)(Hindi): I have a little problem with first 10 minutes and last 5 minutes of it. Otherwise, I think it is great movie or at least movie with great ambition. Central cast of Abhay Deol, Kalki and Emraan Hashmi works really well. It takes some time to get into the groove and some of the characters didn't really work for me. Also, I don't really like the ending but altogether I am glad the Hindi Industry is making such movies. 

The Phantom of the Opera(1925): Again it amazes me that such a film was made in 1925. What interests me the most is Phantom and its Make-up. It is hideous and I believe it is exactly what it meant to be. I have not read this book but I am reading 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' right now and ever since this movie, it has helped me imagine the titular character more vividly. I am not really sure if that is a good thing or bad. 

The Dictator(2012): When I saw its first trailer, I will tell you that I really laughed. Second trailer made me doubt my stand and hence I didn't actively seek it out. But when I did see it I was mildly amused. It sure is the most extremely offensive, racist, sexist and filled with Sasha Baron Cohen's ridiculous and disturbing sense of humour. But there were few moments that saved it from being 'worst movie ever'.  

Little Children(2006): I have been meaning to see this and I am glad that I caught in very last day of being on On-Demand. For almost whole time, it reminded me of Babel(2006) in a sense that there is nothing really good that happens in any character's life. They both have some good performances in them but I don't think I want to watch something like that on screen. At least, most characters come to their senses in the end here.

The Thin Blue Line(1988): The best or worst thing about this documentary is not how atrocious and narrow-minded approach Police had towards Randall Adams and had an innocent man convicted of crime he did not commit, but in my opinion it is a fact that Errol Morris did this documentary while Adams was still serving the sentence for this and got him acquitted because of the evidence he uncovered in it. He is a real hero to me.

The Darjeeling Limited(2007): My First Wes Anderson movie and you know what my very first thought after watching it was? Wes Anderson should make Hindi movies. There were so many things here that didn't make a lot of sense to me but it rides on its emotional quotient and I was having fun watching it. So I didn't mind either - That's like 80-90% of Hindi movies for you. I was also happy with the India we see in it.

Metropolis(1927): This is the 7th silent movie I have seen this month and I probably could not have chosen better way to end this epic month because this movie is Epicness personified. It is so grand on every single scale that considering it was made in 1927, it is as hard as building pyramids. If I made list of 10 movies for sight and sound poll, I will definitely include this movie in it. More on that in my next post.

Total Count:37. 34 First Time Watches and 3 Re-watches.

2012 YTD Count

Total Count: 219. 206 First Time Watches and 13 Re-watches.

Phew! That was a great month. I usually do the split of modern-classics and English or Foreign movies. But I don't really see the point here. At the start of this month, I didn't have anything planned for this month. But I am actually glad that I did go all out on Documentaries and silent movies because I had too many queued up and I had to do something like this to get started with them. Off course, everything else suffered. I only finished season 5 of The Sopranos and those last few episodes of Twin Peaks I was so excited for? still haven't seen them.

So, how was your month ? Did you see anything interesting ? What do you think of the movies I saw ? Any favorites ?