When I talked to Stephen Soderbergh two weeks ago, he mentioned that he and Benicio del Toro wouldn’t start filming their Che Guevera film, Guerilla, in earnest until next year, but that they would shoot some scenes in the UN this month. It seems that the UN building is doing some remodeling, and they wanted to get that old-fashioned look in their film.
Benicio was spotted dressed up like Che today here in New York, and Rupert Murdoch’s unreadable piece of shit rag The Post got pictures, which were scanned by Latino Review. You can see a bit of it here – head to Latino Review to see Che in all his glory.
I’m excited for this film for a number of reasons. First of all, Che Guevara was a complicated and fascinating man, exactly the kind of guy who makes for a strong biopic. But almost as exciting is the knee jerk reaction sure to come from ultra-right wingers – a knee jerk reaction that’s already underway. These people are unable to see the world in anything but their own skewed version of black and white (and by skewed I mean they’re seeing the color scheme backwards), while Che is a figure who rests firmly in the grey area. His story is gripping because for every thing he does that you can completely agree with, he goes and does something terrible. So many of the great historical figures are like this – George Washington had slaves, for example. FDR ordered Japanese-Americas interred during WWII.
What’s funny is that the ultra-righties just can’t stand to see people who they don’t like even discussed. The left didn’t flip out when Oliver Stone made Nixon – a film that I think was key in the rehabilitation of the image of the second worst and most evil president of the last fifty years. Best of all, they’re going to harp on any aspect of Guerilla that they find historically suspect, not understanding that a biopic isn’t a documentary.