- Title: FJ-HRN-2819
- Summary: Che Premiere: Che Premiere
- Description:01:08:24 - A03. HRN-2819 In: 01.07.10 Out: 01.10.10 B-Roll Che Premiere some statue, the posters, AFI backdrop, Joaquim de Almedia, cutaways 01:10:11 - A04. HRN-2819 In: 01.10.11 Out: 01.12.43 B-Roll Che Premiere Mark Hartley, Amaury Nolasco, Jennifer Morrison, James Gray, Morrison, Steven Soderbergh 01:13:00 - A05. HRN-2819 In: 01.13.00 Out: 01.14.32 Sound Bite: Joaquim de Almedia Well a lot of the part of the history, I think I knew it quite a bit because Im in my 50s and we all I mean I went through revolution in Portugal, ? fascism, so we went through a lot of uh the figure of Guevara, we all knew who Guevara was and uh from all the years of that Ive learned Ive read about Guevara. I learned, there are things that I think are omitted in the film, I dont know if theyre on purpose or not. Theyre already controversy, and yes the kids only know him from the t-shirt and that the great figure, but for some in the world hes a hero for some hes an assassin, so especially this country. I dont know how this film will do in Miami, I mean with all the Cubans in Miami think its going to be a controversy. I think that maybe well see it, that maybe they will even uh go in front of the scene before people go to see it, I dont know, but I (talks) but I think you know Soderbergh made a neutral, took a neutral position doing a film about historical figure thats controversial and uh Im neutral, Im not a politician, Im just sorry about what I think is important about this man, and Benicio I think is very important in this film because I think he wanted to do this film for many years and uh the version they show, its their responsibility. People might agree, might not agree. I think it will always be interesting. 01:14:36 - A06. HRN-2819 In: 01.14.36 Out: 01.15.38 Sound Bite: Joaquim de Almedia Oh exactly and part 2, I play, I mean the character uh, I play the president I believe is responsible for the death of Che Guevara so there you go. Uh Im an actor, I dont take any responsibility, uh but I think uh part 2 is exactly what you say, we dont know when he left Cuba he wanted to be to do international revolution in the world I mean especially in South America and I want to believe you to try it and he was abandoned some say by Fidel and um you know to fight against the believing militaries that were supported by the government so there we go, and he lost and he ended up dead in a quite disturbing way. And uh thats the interesting part, I dont think a lot of people know about that second part. Actually the movie it will eventually come out as 2 films which is Argentine and Guerilla, and uh hey, go see it. 01:16:02 - A07. HRN-2819 In: 01.16.02 Out: 01.16.42 Sound Bite: James Gray Well its hard to know what hes brought to cinema because thats something that well know with time, but I know that for me hes an actor who, its his intelligence that matters, you know you can see a person thinking on screen, he doesnt have to say anything and you sense the whole subtext and to me thats a great thing. Its a shorthand, you know you all aspire you know you all aspire to do Hamlet or something and Joaquin has a nonverbal way of asking to be or not to be in every frame, you know. A remarkable actor, I hope I can talk him out of quitting. 01:16:55 - A08. HRN-2819 In: 01.16.55 Out: 01.17.23 Sound Bite: James Gray Well its a very self-destructive thing we have but its very, but we all have it, right? We always have what we dont want, you know somebody, you go to a restaurant and somebody orders fish, thats always the better dish, and its a very sad but actual fact of life and maybe at some point we sort of break the viciousness of it where we realize well maybe this is pretty good what we have, but thats not often and thats not life. 01:17:36 - A09. HRN-2819 In: 01.17.36 Out: 01.18.11 Sound Bite: James Gray No it doesnt work out that way does it, although some people, its far be it from me, you know its an apology from the cops, hes a good guy at the end, you know Joaquin and I talked about that and we always felt like well he makes a certain decision but at a cost to himself because I feel like thats life you know theres no easy choice ultimately in life and ultimately every choice has consequences so Im only trying to make films that I can relate to and what I can relate to is the difficult choice. Its very astute that you say that. I hope it comes across in the films. 01:18:27 - A10. HRN-2819 In: 01.18.27 Out: 01.18.58 Sound Bite: James Gray Well I would say they shouldnt think at all about getting their films into festivals, certainly while either writing or making the film. Uh and the only advice I would have is to become excellent at what they do , you know, because once they, excellence is not denied you know either as a writer or a director, not that I would know, but you know when films are good or if theyre very good or if theyre even great, somehow theyll get out there and somehow the festivals will discover it. I have a lot of confidence int hat, I really do. 01:19:00 - A11. HRN-2819 In: 01.19.00 Out: 01.20.24 B-Roll Che Premiere Rodrigo Santoro, Steven Soderbergh, some dude, Soderbergh, Santoro 01:20:31 - A12. HRN-2819 In: 01.20.31 Out: 01.21.19 Sound Bite: Amaury Nolasco First of all Benicio is someone I definitely admire and he was a mentor to me. I met Benicio, he was the very first person I met when I came 13 years ago. I spoke to him on the phone, he was in a movie called The Funeral, and we knew each other from a friend through friends of a friend, and I remember him asking me you know what? Im here in New York, why not become an actor? What do I do? And his words were, study, study, study. You never know when those doors are gonna open, and that was pretty much it you know, its not give me an agent, give me this. He was just, he went to the core of it, and he was just a person who can really tell by that how he really cares about this profession, about not anybody just becoming an actor, and uh somebody I respect, Im looking forward and dying to work with him in the future and thats it. 01:21:32 - A13. HRN-2819 In: 01.21.32 Out: 01.22.24 Sound Bite: Amaury Nolasco Well the truth of it is, I dont know much about it. its, I have to ask my fellow Cuban uh cousins and friends um he definitely was somebody and that um you know erased a lot of, its gotta be, its very interesting. I just want to be politically correct right here and not get into any sides because its very, its one of those things of again I dont want to compare it to uh Hitler or anybody, it was a dictatorship you know it was a dictatorship and that goes against now what we believe nowadays. Was it the right thing to do at the time? I dont know, I wasnt there, but uh its a movie Im gonna see it for what it is, Im gonna go completely open, and make my opinion on it. 01:22:25 - A14. HRN-2819 In: 01.22.25 Out: 01.23.37 B-Roll Che Premiere Benicio del Toro and Steven Soderbergh 01:23:48 - A15. HRN-2819 In: 01.23.48 Out: 01.25.05 Sound Bite: Rodrigo Santoro Uh I didnt know anything actually. When I first got the part I went to the internet to try to research and uh what I found was a very stereotypical vision of a military you know minister because at that time he wasnt the president and well went to Cuba to try to find out, actually I was searching for the young Raul Castro, the 20 year old who you know was part of the Cuban revolution and brother of Fidel Castro and everything, but who was that guy? And I went there for I think 5 to 6 weeks, and then the cultural center in Havana was supporting you know the film, you know I went to museums, I talked to the official historian for Fidel Castro, I went to the house of the Castros, I went and then I went to Sierra ? where the revolution took place, walked into La Plata you know where uh they have the uh, you know where he commanded the whole revolution, and uh pretty much heard a lot of people, a lot of different opinions, a lot of you know things and try to put together what I thought was that guy at that time. 01:25:23 - A16. HRN-2819 In: 01.25.23 Out: 01.25.51 Sound Bite: Rodrigo Santoro Thats a hard question because, as right now I think its transition, it takes time to really you know uh go to the next step, but hopefully Im really Im really you know praying for that role, still have the spirit, the revolutionary good spirit inside thats gonna do good things for Cuba because that people they really deserve good things. 01:25:53 - A17. HRN-2819 In: 01.25.53 Out: 01.27.55 B-Roll Che Premiere Steven Soderbergh, Benicio del Toro, Soderbergh 01:28:17 - A18. HRN-2819 In: 01.28.17 Out: 01.29.33 Sound Bite: Steven Soderbergh Well I dont know that any one piece of material is going to humanize him completely. I mean even at 4 hours and 20 minutes, theres still a lot were leaving out but I think you do get a sense when you get out of it of why why this guy keeps hanging around in the public consciousness that he was a pretty significant figure in the last century and his level of self-sacrifice was pretty extreme, so I hope thats what people take a way, at least if theyre a handful of scenes where they think, Oh I didnt know that about him, or I didnt know that about the Cuban revolution. Because that was, I had a very superficial understanding of the Cuban revolution and I didnt know there were several different factions trying to do the same thing and that it was very political just trying to get that aspect of it nailed down. That stuffs interesting to me, um, so well, we tried to balance it, theyre war movies at the end of the day, so we tried to balance information with action. 01:29:48 - A19. HRN-2819 In: 01.29.48 Out: 01.30.57 Sound Bite: Steven Soderbergh I cant make an appeal to them, other than everyone, everyone goes through their lives believing justi, feeling justified in how they behave and hes no different than anybody else, and at the end its important to I think humanize everyone whether you dont like them or like them. The dangers in extracting people in general, we see the results of that around us all the time um and also its time for a new approach to that whole situation. I dont know how long youre supposed to give an idea before you agree that it doesnt work, but its obvious that the approach that weve taken toward Cuba past 50 years now isnt doing any good to anyone on either side of the question, so you know Im not out to convince anybody, I dont have any vested interest in making Che look one way or another. I had complete control over the movie and so you know this is my take on him. 01:31:00 - A20. HRN-2819 In: 01.31.00 Out: 01.31.24 B-Roll Che Premiere Benicio del Toro interviewing 01:31:46 - A21. HRN-2819 In: 01.31.46 Out: 01.32.57 Sound Bite: Benicio del Toro Well I think that you know I think that one thing is um he fought for the forgotten ones. You know really what it was is he uses bones and guts and muscles to tell the world it was a lot of injustice and man was exploiting man in many places in the world and he used himself to tell society, sorry, to tell society that you know this is it, Im gonna make something, Im gonna do something about it and he did. And he told everybody he was gonna do something about it, and he did, and so he never really like hid behind curtains, he said what he was gonna do and he did it and he was human being, he was superman but he was human being and uh you know I think thats one of the reasons why people are attracted to him or interested. 01:33:25 - A22. HRN-2819 In: 01.33.25 Out: 01.35.16 Sound Bite: Peter Buchman Well I think that um (talks) I think that most people dont know much beyond the t-shirt and slogans that people usually say about this man, um I think that people would be surprised at how much that Che was, how much his interest focused on things like literacy, getting people to read, getting people healthcare, you know trying to uh, you know that aspect of the Cuban revolution, dealing with people who are incredibly poor and trying to help and uh so I think that for me with Che, thats why I felt it was really important in the movie to show the uh the Cuban revolution basically because you get to see this man who starts out as a medic and then by the end of the movie hes a hero of the revolution and hes reaching this kind of iconic status basically and in the first movie you see him in New York sort of looking back and talking about the Cuban revolution, and once hes in New York hes already the icon, and so the first movie is really a way to try to see how this man became what he became you know and you look at, you start out as this iconic image of him in New York and then go back to this man whos a medic on the expedition, hes trying, he can barely walk through the jungle because of his asthma, theyre down to 12 people in the rebel column, surrounded by about 40,000 Batista soldiers, and from there 2 years later they run the revolution and they become this huge figure so that first movie in going back and showing that story in Cuba I thought is essential in trying to understand how this icon came to be how he is basically. 01:35:48 - A23. HRN-2819 In: 01.35.48 Out: 01.37.21 Sound Bite: Lou Diamond Phillips You know its interesting I think many people uh whether it be Barack Obama or John McCain you know are attempting to demistfy themselves and relate to a public, to make them understand that theyre human beings in extraordinary position and that this world is simply run by human beings no matter how high a CEO may be or a leader of a country or a sports figure or whatever, there is no superman, and what this does is I think it humanizes Che Guevara because he has obtained mythic proportion but at the same time I think elevates him in a way that wouldnt have been possible without making him a human being. It shows that he is fallable, it shows that he was a man who could be cold and could suffer and yet had such a commitment to his ideal. And I dont think we see a lot of that in this day and age. Uh even in this political climate where theres someone whos willing to die for what he believes in and hes willing to die for people he doesnt know, who hes defending because he is the faceless masses, uh and I think that is what really becomes moving ultimately in this movie and uh how Steven approached it not as some mythic Hollywood film but a very real, very honest, very raw true story and for me its just an honor to be a part of that. 01:37:39 - A24. HRN-2819 In: 01.37.39 Out: 01.38.44 Sound Bite: Lou Diamond Phillips Well its interesting I mean because Che Guevara is a huge controversial figure. There are hundreds of thousands of people who consider him a villain, and interestingly enough my character Mario Monje was the man who did not give him support in Bolivia and so many people feel that he betrayed Che Guevara. Ive spoken to people who feel that Monje was right, that Monje was a visionary and you know we will not support a bloody coup, we will not support a violent overthrow, uh and turned away you know and chose to do it politically instead. Uh and so its interesting the viewpoint of history and you look back and see how something does play out what the ultimate results of anyones actions are going to be and I think any film has to have a point of view or else it truly is just documentary so in this Benicio truly tries to bring the nobility and the ideals of Che to life and yet there are those who will not be happy with that certain elevation. 01:39:16 - A25. HRN-2819 In: 01.39.16 Out: 01.40.36 Sound Bite: Benjamin van der Veen Right, right, absolutely, thats a great question. You know Che when he finished that sort of first part of his life, the first chapter of his life, he was one of the most powerful people in Cuba. He could have spent the rest of his life driving around in motorcades and doing great things but living a very safe and luxurious life. The remarkable thing I think about the second film or the chapter of his life that the second film covers is that he gave up all of that and he and a group of an handful of men traveled to Bolivia to try and start a revolution that he hoped would bring a sense of equality to all the underprivileged in Latin America and eventually the world and so here is this guy, handsome man, you know charismaticm, top of the country who gave up everything and the story of went they went through it was unbelievable I mean to read about it and do the research is amazing. They went through the most unimaginable hardships and eventually he gave up everything and sacrificed his life and its a very touching and powerful episode um I mean its just remarkable.
- Collection: Historic Films
- Producer:Historic Films
- Transmission Date:01/01/2008
- Rights:On request
- Decade: 2000s
- File Name: FJ-HRN-2819