Che!
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Che! |
| Original title | Che! |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1969 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Fleischer |
| script | Sy Bartlett , Michael Wilson |
| production | Sy Bartlett |
| music | Lalo Schifrin |
| camera | Charles F. Wheeler |
| cut | Marion Rathman |
| occupation | |
| |
Che! is an American film directed by Richard Fleischer from the year 1969 , the life of Che Guevara portrays.
action
The film describes the time between Che's arrival in Cuba in 1956 and his death in Bolivia in 1967.
The first scene shows a helicopter transporting Che's body to the place where the Bolivian military wants to present him to the press. Incised fictional interviews lead to flashbacks that depict individual stages in his life.
Much of the film describes Che and Fidel Castro's struggle together . In the course of the guerrilla struggle in Cuba, the trained doctor Che gradually became equal to his teacher Fidel: “Commandante” Che had traitors executed and later even justified mass executions. After the Cuba crisis, Che accused Fidel of unconditionally subordinating himself to the Soviet Union. Che leaves Cuba.
The last part of the film shows the failure of Che's revolutionary plans in Bolivia. The alien revolutionaries do not succeed in rousing the Bolivian rural population to resistance. Hunted by Bolivian troops using Che's own guerrilla manual, the group suffers from illness and exhaustion. Che and his followers are ambushed and captured. Che is killed - although the film is limited to hints at the depiction of the crime and its background.
prehistory
The production preparations for Che! started right after Guevara's death. From the film adaptation of the life of the avowed anti-capitalist and idol Che, the aim was to make profits worldwide as quickly as possible.
The production company 20th Century Fox hired Richard Fleischer , born in 1916, who was an expert for routine goods and was neither considered particularly sensitive nor politically conspicuous as director. Scriptwriter Sy Bartlett was put as an “expert” Michael Wilson , who had been on the “black list” in Hollywood for years as a “leftist”. With the occupation of the title role by Omar Sharif , it was hoped to be able to guarantee international success.
To the script
The politically superficial and at the same time sensational script for Che! was certainly the main reason the film failed at the box office. He lacked any authenticity and the partiality necessary for the audience to identify with the hero. “We want to show this person's tragedy on screen. We abstain from any judgment about his life, his ideas and his intentions, ” said author and producer Sy Bartlett at the start of the film. Political co-author Wilson's influence was apparently limited. For his part, the title hero Omar Sharif made sure that "the script was free of any 'pros and cons'" . He said, “Che's ideas stretched all over the world that he wanted to improve. Whether he was right or wrong with his methods is not up for discussion. "
The viewer learns little about Che's political motives and the actual events in Cuba and Bolivia. Instead, the Hollywood cliché of a socially romantic Latin American revolutionary is drawn, so that Che and Fidel often look like two bandits in a spaghetti western. In retrospect, director Fleischer said: “A film has to have a point of view. What we said was - I hope - the truth, but we were caught between stools with our 'impartiality'. And that's very bad. "
Other weaknesses of the book are the many monologues that connect the scenes, and the pseudo-documentary "interviews" by contemporary witnesses, the formal use of which is reminiscent of the "interview passages" in the German schoolgirl report series.
About the occupation
Casting the title role with Omar Sharif turned out to be a serious mistake. The Egyptian actor, as a romantic type, was a world star at least since Doctor Schiwago (1965), which the “Che!” Producers tried to exploit. But they met with resistance from all potential viewers for whom Che was a symbol. The somewhat confused and sometimes slightly intimidated portrayal of the role by Sharif also seemed strange, especially with such a charismatic personality as Che Guevara. The mistake was so noticeable that it alone could have led to the flop.
Nevertheless, Sharif's portrayal was significantly better than that of Jack Palance , who played the role of Fidel Castro, grimacing wildly and chewing a cigar. Palance, Hollywood villain on duty, portrayed a rough and gruff revolutionary leader with a beard and a fake nose, who, in addition to talking and fighting, is always occupied with smoking cigars and drinking alcohol.
Reviews
- “Che!” Abstains from “any political and social analysis of the situation and attempts to explain it, politics does not take place (because otherwise one might or inevitably have to take a position). It is a thoroughly apolitical film, which, however, is indirectly political, insofar as it reduces a primarily political phenomenon to the purely individual, biographical and external, thereby falsifying it and doing neither Che nor Latin America justice " ( Evangelischer Filmbeobachter 256 / 1969)
- “The grotesque idea of putting 'Doctor Schiwago' in the role of Che hardly suggests malice, but rather a monumental lack of judgment. Or an unlikely sublime intention: to create a guarantee that Che Guevara's personality will be perceived as an absurdity. ” (Folke Isaksson / Leif Fuhrhammar in Politics and Film 1973, quoted in Schäfer / Schwarzer, p. 21)
- “Comic-book treatment of famed revolutionary became one of the biggest film jokes of 1960s. However, you haven't lived until you see Palance play Fidel Castro. " (Leonard Maltin: TV Movies and Video Guide . 1990 Edition. New York 1990, p. 181)
Summary
Che! completely dispenses with an analysis or political evaluation, but is limited to the outward appearances of Che Guevara's life, which is presented in the style of an Italo-Western and accompanied by suitable music by Lalo Schifrin. Due to deficiencies in the script and the acting skills, the film seems involuntarily funny, but is thoroughly entertaining from this point of view.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b cf. also on the following: Horst Schäfer / Wolfgang Schwarzer: From 'Che' to 'Z'. Political thriller in the cinema . Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 20-23.
- ↑ a b Protestant film observer 256/1969.
- ↑ cit. n. Article Richard Fleischer on prisma-online.de .
Web links
- Che! in the Internet Movie Database (English)