Che (2008 film)

Che
Promotional poster
Directed by	Steven Soderbergh
Produced by	Laura Bickford Benicio del Toro
Written by	Peter Buchman Benjamin A. van der Veen
Starring	Benicio del Toro
Music by	Alberto Iglesias
Cinematography	Peter Andrews
Edited by	Pablo Zumárraga
Production company	Telecinco Cinema Wild Bunch Section Eight Productions
Distributed by	Morena Films (Spain) Warner Bros. (France) IFC Films (US)
Release date	21 May 2008 (2008-05-21) (Cannes) 5 September 2008 (2008-09-05) (Spain: The Argentine) 12 December 2008 (2008-12-12) (United States) 7 January 2009 (2009-01-07) (France: The Argentine) 27 January 2009 (2009-01-27) (France: Guerrilla) 27 February 2009 (2009-02-27) (Spain: Guerrilla)
Running time	257 minutes
Country	Spain Germany United States
Language	Spanish English
Budget	US$58 million
Box office	US$40.9 million

Che is a two-part 2008 biopic about Argentine Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Benicio del Toro. Rather than follow a standard chronological order, the films offer an oblique series of interspersed moments along the overall timeline. Part One is entitled The Argentine and focuses on the Cuban Revolution from the landing of Fidel Castro, Guevara, and other revolutionaries in Cuba to their successful toppling of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship two years later. Part Two is entitled Guerrilla and focuses on Guevara's attempt to bring revolution to Bolivia and his demise. Both parts are shot in a cinéma vérité style, but each has different approaches to linear narrative, camerawork, and the visual look.

Filmmaker Terrence Malick originally worked on a screenplay limited to Guevara's attempts to start a revolution in Bolivia. When financing fell through, Malick left the project, and Soderbergh subsequently agreed to direct the film. He realized that there was no context for Guevara's actions in Bolivia and decided that his participation in the Cuban Revolution and his appearance at the United Nations in 1964 should also be depicted. Peter Buchman was hired to write the screenplay: the script was so long that Soderbergh decided to divide the film into two parts, one chronicling Cuba and other depicting Bolivia. Soderbergh shot the films back-to-back starting at the beginning of July 2007, with Guerrilla first in Spain for 39 days, and The Argentine shot in Puerto Rico and Mexico for 39 days.