Ever read the comments section of Jeffrey Wells’ Hollywood Elsewhere site? For example, pretty much any time the film “Che” comes up a few of the longtime backtalkers bring up the words “mass-murderer” and “terrorist.” They’re not the only ones who feel this way about the Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara. Apparently a news channel [Fox one must assume?] used an image of Che as an example of a terrorist and it got “Che” star Benicio del Toro fuming in anger. He remains an unapologetic defender of the controversial figure, still seen as a romantic freedom fighter to some and a flat out modern-day, Bush-labelled “terrorizor” to others.
“He was against terrorism. He never bombed cafés or stores. He fought against armies, usually stronger and bigger than him,” Del Toro told New York magazine.
To make his case, and perhaps to appeal to the ignoramus summer crowd however, del Toro unfortunately compared Guevara’s tactics to The Dark Knight. “[Everyone] might not know the details [about his life], but I think they see that he’s full of dignity, a warrior who believed that he could fight for the helpless. You know, there’s an element of Batman to the guy… Even Batman had to kill some bad guys.”
Ummm, yeah. We’ll leave that alone. Meanwhile a few new-ish images of Demián Bichir as Fidel Castro from what we can assume is the second half of “Che,” “Guerrilla” have popped up online! You loved him, he invited freedom fries, ahem, we mean, chili fries, duh.
“I think they see that he’s full of dignity”
Sure, Guevara had so much dignity that he oversaw the Kangaroo Trials and executions at La Cabaña prison after the revolution. Not to mention his participation in the building of Castro’s tyrannical regime. It’s unfortunate that this film is being made to perpetrate this sad sad myth.