Benicio Del Toro Wins Best Actor In Cannes For Playing Che Guevara
28 May 2008, 4:30 PM. By Daniel Mauser
Benicio Del Toro won “Best Actor” in Cannes for his role as Che in Che, a movie about Che. Che!:
Benicio Del Toro won the best-actor prize for “Che,” Steven Soderbergh’s four-hour-plus epic about Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara. Presented as two films, “Che” follows Guevara and Fidel Castro’s triumphant guerrilla campaign to overthrow Cuba’s government in the late 1950s and Guevara’s downfall and execution after trying to foment a similar rebellion in Bolivia in the 1960s.
What a guy.
Del Toro, who co-starred in Penn’s “21 Grams,” also won in a unanimous jury vote, Penn said.
“I’d like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara,” said Del Toro. He also thanked Soderbergh, “who got up every day, forced me to this. … He was there pushing it, and he pushed all of us.”
Blood… boiling… bile… rising. Fucking shit, you guys.
Look, it’s not that we take issue with movies about Che. He was interesting, after all. It’s just that big-budget movies about his life seem to be intent on making him out to be a hero at the expense of presenting a fleshed-out historical snapshot. Che riding on his motorcycle with the wind whipping through his hair. Che smiling, chomping down on a cigar with Fidel, looking handsome and dangerous in army fatigues. Not shown? The fact that he executed Cuban soldiers or set up forced labor camps or that this Argentine’s vision led to the incarceration, murder and displacement of many Cubans.
Its funny how the notions of “fighting your own battles” and not getting “caught up” in other nation’s problems only apply to certain people. Of course, we might be a wee bit biased, as our family lost their homes thanks to the Cuban Revolution. But, hey! What’s a house, anyway? What’s a country? What’s access to food and water and electricity and gas? What’s the ability to use your own country’s hotels and beaches? Having a home, a job and enough rice to feed a family is too revolutionary a concept, we guess.
It’s that hypocrisy and that willingness to celebrate and venerate all things Che that makes us roll our eyes each time a new movie about his life is churned out and distributed to people who don’t know or care to have a complete picture of what Che did and who he is. “Guevara and Fidel Castro’s triumphant guerrilla campaign to overthrow Cuba’s government.” This language is pretty indicative of the prevailing idea that Che is a hero, the stuff of myth and legend, and not a flesh and blood human who killed and destroyed other flesh and blood humans. So, you know. Congrats to Benicio del Toro and all that, but, at the same time. Fucking shit, you guys.
Benicio del Toro Wins Best Actor In Cannes, French Film Wins Best Picture [Huffington Post]
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fucking shit indeed!
It really irks me when i see these clueless teenage hot topic zombies wearing Che T shirts. They have no idea what the man did they just think its trendy to wear it. I’ll hold judgment on this movie till I actually get a chance to view it. The man was a monster in my opinion and hopefully the movie doesn’t make him out to be some sort of saint because he was FAR from it.
What about those who know about Che’s actions and wear the shirts because of it?
True, true, true… that quote sent my blood boiling but I guess those whose family suffered and are still suffering would have that reaction. I would, although, like to point out the hypocrisy of this very website taking advertising dollars from the US Army. Guys, I love the website but with all the obvious issues with the US Army becoming an arm for Haliburton in the Iraq War, regime change, WMDs in Iraq, and McClellan in combination with recruitment of disenfranchised youths (ie Latinos) into active military service. Well, I guess I am just looking for you to not take $ from the military if you don’t have to. I understand business is business and I am a capitalist pig but if you can…..
My mother’s family was also negatively affected by the Cuban revolution. And it never ceases to amaze me how ignorant people are about Che and the revolution. A girl once asked me how I felt about Che Guevara, the most influential Cuban hero in history (her words). Oh, it just drives me crazy that people sometimes have no clue that (1) he’s NOT Cuban, and (2) he should NOT be considered a hero.
Wow, I’m really surprised that these comments aren’t the usual “CHE CHAVEZ FIDEL BLAH BLAH AWESOME”
That said, the New York Times basically said the movie sucked and agree with you about the Che hero-worship. And that’s the New York Times! That “liberal rag!” Pretty intense…
On a way-off-to-the-sidenote, I am still baffled by the number of schools named after Robert E. Lee. That man was a monster not a war hero and yet, he is still celebrated in many parts of the South.
(And yes, I know my comment didn’t really have much to do with Latinos, so save it.)
whatever. it’s kinda hard to take seriously earnest indignation from the people who mock it in everyone else on a daily basis…those who live by ironic detachment should also die by ironic detachment. or at least wait till the movie comes out before complaining about “hypocrisy, celebration, and veneration.” i’m just sayin’…
hey Alejandra, the world can be a frightning place, as experienced by your family, but go see the film first, your’e a journalist first right? if not, then don’t write for the site. As a Chicano I have some sentiments for the ideals of Che and Fidel, but life is never as we want it, as people’s greed and egos, really we are talking about men here, often kills their ideals. Our Heroes often betray us, ur ideals always compromised. But really we are talking about a movie, go see it I expect alot more from you Alejandra then “WTF.”
@ Saucido: My problem isn’t with this specific film, but with a certain idea of Che that’s popular in mainstream media. I’ve read enough about this particular movie to know how Che is portrayed, including the NYT article Mark referenced. I haven’t and don’t plan on seeing this film. Not because it’s about Che, but because I don’t pay eleven dollars to go see a movie unless I’m certain it contains robots with large boobs.
And I’m not a journalist; I’m a blogger. Any blogger who would describe herself otherwise deserves a huge “WTF.”