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Che - Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Disc Review

By brenden ⋅ February 1, 2010 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

CHE - COLLECTOR’S EDITION (2008, Blu-ray released January 19, 2010 - MSRP $49.99 CAN)

I wasn’t prepared for the sheer awesomeness that is Che. I honestly didn’t think Steven Soderbergh had it in him. But by the time I had finished viewing Part One of the film, I was convinced. This is some of his best work and some of the best cinema of 2009!

This isn’t a perfect film. In fact, I’m not sure that I should be referring to this as a single film in two parts or as two individual films. The first part, also known as The Argentine, focuses on the Cuban revolution and sees a relatively young Ernesto Guevara, played brilliantly throughout by Benicio Del Toro, transitioning from an Argentinian doctor and intellectual to the Cuban guerrilla leader, affectionately called ‘Che’. This is an incredible couple of hours of filmmaking that flashes forward and back through time, using colour and film-stock to indicate transitions. It can be tough to piece things together during the first few minutes of the film but as the narrative begins to play out, as the action moves to Cuba, the film becomes clearer and all the puzzle pieces fall into place.

Che Part Two, also known as Guerrilla, chronicles Guevara’s final years struggling to light the fire under his great Latin American Revolution in Bolivia. I’m not sure if it was film fatigue or if the narrative of this half of the film doesn’t compare but I found it scattered and not as compelling. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still wonderful to behold but it just seemed to meander through the countless petty struggles Guevara and his small band of revolutionaries were up against living in the wilds of Bolivia, evading the authorities. It simply doesn’t have the satisfying structure or the triumphant conclusion of the first part. I was sad to see the film end though. After spending nearly five hours with Che, seeing the credits roll was like losing a friend. Shot in a verité style using handheld RED cameras, Che is a remarkable, nuanced feat that few other filmmakers would have tackled and nobody but Soderbergh could have delivered.

This Blu-ray Collector’s edition of Che seems to be exclusive to the Canadian market and is produced by E1 Films. I haven’t had a chance to A/B this two-disc set with the Criterion Collection edition but I suspect both are derived from the same film master. The differences would then be in the encodes of the films. E1’s discs are high-bitrate encodes and look pretty great overall, despite the uneven quality of the source. Shot digitally on RED camera, Che also features a ton of vintage footage integrated into the film. So, you can expect a lot of grain in parts and some digital noise popping up throughout. The audio is DTS HD Master Audio in Spanish, with a compressed French language track included alongside with English and French subs.

The set advertises around 75-minutes of special features and doesn’t duplicate the Criterion set at all. Fans may want to pick this one up to have a complete collection of extras! Part One has a 10-minute “Making Of…” featurette that has the feel of glossy EPK material. There’s also a decent 13-minute Steven Soderbergh interview and a couple of trailers on the disc. The Part Two disc features a 6-minute interview with Benicio Del Toro, a 12-minute interview with composer Alberto Iglesias and a more lengthy, informative 31-minute conversation with consultant Jon Lee Anderson, author of ‘Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life‘. This disc is also rounded out by offering a couple of trailers.

Tags: Benicio Del Toro, Che, Criterion, E1, Paradox, Steven Soderbergh, The Criterion Collection