It's worth noting briefly that Steven Soderbergh's Che has just been released by Criterion this week on both DVD and Blu-ray. I'm really looking forward to it, though it'll probably be a few weeks before I get through the 4 1/2-hour films and some of the extras. It may be a case where the creation of the films is more fascinating than the films themselves, but I'm a pretty big Soderbergh fan and his work is always brilliant from a technical perspective.
Criterion has posted a few items on their blog, including this essay from Amy Taubin, excerpted (I believe) from the discs' booklet.
I also highly recommend this podcast episode of Filmspotting. Matty and Adam discuss the film, and Adam conducts a 30-minute interview with Soderbergh.
UPDATE: Well, I didn't quite finish Part 1 over the weekend, but I felt like I got a pretty good sense of the film. First off, the RED digital camera (which was a prototype at the time of shooting) has rendered some stunning images for Soderbergh. As is often the case, his exceptional work as DP on his own films pays off big time. The juxtaposition between the lush jungle greens and the NYC B&W makes for some of Soderbergh's most compelling visuals to date.
However. For those who claim that Soderbergh is too coldly detached from the subject matter to make it compelling, I can at least partially sympathize. Part 1 is quite interesting, but not terribly inspiring. I have no doubt that this was Soderbergh's intent, but I wonder whether a myth as powerful and divisive as Che Guevera can really be dispassionately dissected.
More after I watch Part 2...
