Benicio Del Toro Promotes "Che" At Havana Screening

HAVANA - Actor Benicio del Toro says protesters at the Miami screening of "Che" should have watched the film first.

Del Toro plays Argentine-born Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a hero of the Cuban revolution and global icon. He says the role was difficult and took a lot of time.

Cuban exiles protested the movie in Miami last week. Many opposed Guevara for executions of officials from Fulgencio Batista's government, which was toppled in 1959.

But del Toro says "a lot of the people protesting the movie hadn't seen it."

He spoke Saturday as about 1,500 people attended the screening of the movie by director Steven Soderbergh at a film festival in Havana.

The Puerto Rican actor won the Cannes Film Festival's best-actor prize for his performance.

Comments

[Zapata]

Che Guevara is one of the most heroic figures in world history and a stoic example of what all those who speak of “revolution” should espouse to be.

This was a man who left a bourgeoisie comfortable life of the upper class, a potential well compensated career as a medical doctor, and high regarded governmental position --- each time to slog through the jungle and fight guerrilla wars against impenetrable odds = for a better and more equitable society.

Guevara despite his crippling and acute asthma which would debilitate him almost daily to inches from death, directed “suicide squads” in the battle against the U.S. armed and backed Dictator Batista.

In Bolivia, Guevara spent almost over 1 hellish year in the festering jungle battling a disease which left his hands as mounds of swollen flesh, the fact that his allergic reaction to mosquito bites would leave walnut sized welts all over his body, kept fighting even when he was without food for nearly a month, went shoeless, without blankets, and STILL with less than 50 men took on a force of 1,800 Bolivian U.S. armed rangers.

Even when Che was tied up in a small mud school house awaiting his own execution - he complained to the local teacher that in a nation where the leaders drove Mercedes … it was a travesty that the peasants were taught in such a dilapidated place

With thousands of children dying everyday from hunger ... the World needs "Che's" know more than ever.

[Zapata]

I had the chance to see this film last week when it screened in Miami ...

It got a standing ovation, and I would classify it as the greatest movie I have EVER SEEN !

Beautiful, brilliant, powerful, poetic, moving, artistic, and thought provoking.

A true cinematic masterpiece - and all those around me agreed.

This should win 'Best Picture' at the Oscars hands down ... and be studied by film schools for years to come.

:o)

[HarlemFreeThought]

I view certain movies for the director, actor relationship. Coppola- Brando, Burton- Depp,
Soderbergh- Del Toro as Che, wow!!

[2grainsofsalt]

how do you feel about sandwiches?

[VivaZapata]

Time for the rest of the country to stop marching to the beat of the Miami cocaine cartel.

[Zapata]

"Che is great movie material ... he had one of the most fascinating lives that I can imagine in the last century" --- Director Steven Soderbergh

"When you tell the story of Che, you're telling a story of the history of a country, so you have to be very careful." --- Benicio Del Toro


FOR MORE INFO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_(film)

[Sparty1]

Che Guevara was such an intriguing man. His story is amazing and I hope and pray that I can see this in Dallas.

[Sparty1]

Benicio Del Toro solidified my love for Puerto Rican men, much to the chagrin of my husband. I will watch anything that he's starring in. I can't wait to see this movie.

[minkia]

I have been waiting for this movie for two years! To see the trailer was terribly exciting, I cannot wait to watch a competent actor play a complex character, less chance of the A&F caricature that has been made of him cropping up on screen. Here, here!

[Liberalrep1980]

This should be a really good movie. If you agree with Che or not it should be a really good movie. We are talking about an amazing actor playing a highly contraversial role. It is a movie, so any nay sayers are weak sauce unless they have seen the movie already some how in which case they are entitled to their opinions. I constantly get strange looks when I say things like "Number one overated movie of all time, Scarface, number two, Gladiator." It is all about personal taste. And yes, we need to drop the embargo. Trading seems to be the only true way to bring prosperity to other countries rather than force.

[norwaylass]

This is a great movie. Saw it in two parts Wed and Thursday night and still thinking about it full time.
Just wonderful!!!!

[larry278]

The trolls are not out in force yet. Do you suppose that the trolls are not composing & sending comments to HP because their former paymasters no longer are paying them because their former paymasters no longer have the ready money to pay the army of free lance trolls because the former paymasters of trolls lost too much money in the meltdown. A lot of free lance trolls won't work or write unless they are paid in advance for their work.
A lot of formerly lucerative occupations will disappear in the coming depression. Good bye, free lance trolls. We won't miss you.

[sarasson]

Very intriguing comment. Whenever Che is mentioned on HuffPo, there is usually a slew of anti-Che remarks. Yet today, they are noticeably absent. Things that make you go hmmmm.

[2grainsofsalt]

Yes, Larry. "Free lance" troll is a "lucerative" position. Your opinion counts.

[Zapata]

TRAILER & pictures for this film

http://www.revleft.com/vb/new-trailer-che-t96265/index.html

Can't wait to see it :o)

El Che Vive !

[piul05]

Hear, hear!

[Zapata]

Jean Paul Sartre on Che Guevara:

~ "Not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age."

~ "Our era's most perfect man."

~ "He lived his words, spoke his own actions and his story and the story of the world ran parallel."


- Hasta la Victoria Siempre ! -

[darthdarcy]

Sartre had by then also become a Maoist..

[rekk]

Ha! Ha! Ha! People who have never read Sartre and can make stupid black-white/communist-democrat comments make me laugh!

[tkondaks]

Yes, Cuba is SUCH a success!
11 million people in virtual slavery.
Nice job, Che (who revelled in his job as executioner, overseeing the killing of over 600 political prisoners).

[Zapata]

= Jon Lee Anderson, author of the 800 + page 'Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life' :

“I have yet to find a single credible source pointing to a case where Che executed “an innocent. Those persons executed by Guevara or on his orders were condemned for the usual crimes punishable by death at times of war or in its aftermath: desertion, treason or crimes such as rape, torture or murder.”

@ the Legacy of Che Guevara” at PBS Online Newshour Forum (20 November 1997)

[hypnotoad72]

Instead of watching the film, try reading numerous books to get a full fledged picture of the man in question.

And, yes, a good movie can be about anything. So can bad movies.

Of course, define "good". If "good" means the majority of the populace loves it, that's mere populism.

Jim Jones got his followers to drink poisoned kool-aid. Was it good or simply the popular thing to do? Oh, that's right, he forced some of his followers to do it too.

Our media loves to present clean "bio-pics". Remember that flick "A Beautiful Mind", directed by Ron Howard? Parts of the protagonist's life were hidden from public view too.

[PaxMundis]

I'll probably do both, that is if I ever get to see this. My guess is that the so-called anti-communists will do everything they can to keep it off most screens.

[LovingHope]

Benicio is one of my favorite actors. I love that he is being controversial. I can't wait till the movie is released around where I live. I can't believe he's in Havana, Cuba. Why do we still have an embargo on those people? Let them live however they want to live. Who are we to judge other people. I hope I get to see when The U.S. takes the embargo away. That is the right thing to do.

[hypnotoad72]

They're Communist like China. What had Cuba did so differently to embargo them but to open up to China?

[walkerke]

It's a Cold War thing. Cuba's crime was being too nearby geographically and being a USSR ally.

[carrieanna]

He's one of my favorites too! I'm so excited for this movie!

[norwaylass]

Be still my heart is what I said after seeing the movie this week.

[tkondaks]

The embargo doesn't prevent Cubans from living as they want to live (that's the job of the totalitarian communist government who control the lives of over 11 million Cubans).
Indeed, only 2 countries in the world participate in the Cuban "embargo": the United States and Israel. All the other 200 or so countries in the world can freely trade with Cuba (yet Cuba still doesn't work).
Don't blame the embargo.

[walkerke]

If you think the embargo has no influence on the way people in Cuba live, you're delusional. The embargo is an antiquated Cold War holdover that should have been lifted years ago. In my personal opinion, it wasn't lifted because of 1) the Cubans in Miami (huge voting block in an always important state) would have kittens and 2) the US propoganda machine doesn't want to take the chance of 'mericans seeing that this Communist experiment might be somewhat successful. Given the extraordinarily high literacy rate, a workable socialized medicine program, etc., only imagine how successful Cuba might be without the embargo...I'm not saying it would become a new superpower, only much less a failure than our government's propaganda machine would have us believe.

[Grulg]

Needs Giant Robots. You know I'm right. A 100' tall Che robot that transforms into the Kremlin.