Customer Reviews

CHE: Rise and Fall - Documentary on Che Guevara

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"Che: Rise and Fall" is the most complete work yet produced on the trials and tribulations of argentine born Ernesto Che Guevara. The documentary is structured in three main acts. The first relates to the early years in Argentina, his friendship with Alberto Granado and the preparations for the long journey through South America on a motorcycle. The adventure served as the argument to another film "The Motorcycle Diaries". The second half of the First Act focuses on the Cuban Revolution and the relationship between Guevara and Fidel Castro. The Second Act brings the audience closer to the period in Guevara spent in Africa fighting a Revolutionary War, and last but not least, we are confronted with the final days of Che in Bolivia. Che: Rise and Fall" brings out for the first time the testimony of Alberto Granado himself at a crucial time when the remains of Guevara were being brought back to Cuba after thirty years in an unmarked grave somewhere in Bolivia. The documentary is a must see for all those concern with Latin American History and the Twentieth Century. Stephen Kaplan.

This documentary of unequaled authenticity delves into the human side of the revolutionary icon, Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Interviews with Dr. Alberto Granados, (the friend who accompanied him across South America via motorcycle), as well as Cuban revoultionaries who fought beside him and under his command, provide glimpses into the life and character of this remarkable man.

Far from an excercise in hero worhship, the fall of Che is examined objectively, dealing with his mistakes, not glossiing over them. A must-see film for anyone interested in revolutionary history.

This is the most extraordinary documentary I have ever seen of CHE and I have seen them all. To be able to see and listen to Granado himself was priceless. The interviews with Che's bodyguards it's intense and it shows. The First Times when most of them saw Che as tango singer out of Argentine movies it's amazing. Another relevant aspect of this film is the process of transformation of Ernesto Guevara into CHE, the How and When. Details such as those explore in connection with CHE as a photographer himself are quite unique. In my humble opinion this is a must see that complements other views on the subject. Thank you for making it! Congrats! MT

"Numerous journalists have described with pointed accuracy the vast interwoven tapestry that was Communist revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara's life - from his youth in Alta Gracia, to his tenure as a politician in post-1959 Havana, to his tragic execution in October 1967. With his hour-long Spanish-language documentary Che: Rise and Fall, Eduardo Montes-Bradley provides a concise biographical overview of Che's life, keeping his eye on both Guevara's life-journey and the nearly impenetrable mythos that developed around him and quickly became inseparable from the man himself. The work intercuts key archival clips with interviews featuring those who knew and worked with Che, including Dr. Alberto Granados and three surviving members of Guevara's personal guard." ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Is has become increasingly difficult to find original material on Guevara that would prove not to be bias one way or the other. This is a balance, well though interpretation of his life. The director has chosen to divide Guevara saga in three chapters. Childhood where for the first time we get to see images of young Guevara at 3 and 5, the revolutionary period and the collapse of the adventure in Bolivia. I believe this is the same team that made another film about Evita which I also enjoyed very much. At least the name of the director is the same. Good job!

This is a horrible documentary A socialist fueled, blow hardy, love affair with this communist killer. This piece of crap film is filled with one sided interviews and the absolute worst subtitles I've ever seen on film-full of misspellings and bad grammar. Don't waste your time.

This is a pirated version of the original movie by the same name. The quality is lesser and by buying it you are hurting the filmmakers who made the film and never saw any monies from the producers. The good version, the better quality version and the legitimate DVD is the one with the Red and White artwork.

Excellent documentary. I with that it could have been a little longer, but it is based on reminiscenses (and not a detailed history of the revolution) by his closest friends and fellow soldiers in the Cuban Revolution. The narration by Alberto Granados is moving and revelatory of Che's personality, intellect and the internal forces that drove him towards armed revolution. Subtitles are what they are for a viewer following dialogue in a foreign language. Just makes you concentrate more, which is alright as long as one's vision is good enough.

I purchased this video to show in a history course that I was teaching, because the book I had assigned on the Cuban Missile Crisis was highly critical of the Cuban revolution. I had thought from other comments here and on other sites that this film would help to balance out the students' knowledge. Unfortunately, the documentary, produced for Latin American television, is a series of oral histories, mostly with his childhood friend and with his bodyguard. The production values are very poor (dogs barking in the background, other noises intruding), the footage of the interviews, conducted in the 1990s, is largely uncut and unedited and therefore digressive and meandering and bloveating, and the documentary lacks much original footage. The documentary is weak on his Venezuelan upbringing, fairly decent on the motorcycle journey that was his epiphany (his accompanier's interview is valuable), interesting on his Mexican years (including showing some of his photography), but is extremely weak on 1959-1965, the crucial years of his Cuban revolutionary involvement. There is nothing, for example, on his relationship with Fidel. The documentary turns critical of his failure in the Congo and his adventure in Bolivia, leading to his death. All that is fine by me, but the long uncut oral histories do get tedious. There is no narrative voiceover, very little original footage, little dates or other information, a total reliance on the subjective impressions of people who knew him to one degree or another. As an oral history record this film is valuable; as a useful one-hour review of Che's life, it is sorely lacking.

I have not seen this film yet but I have seen and heard some lengthy excerpts from it, and it looks and sounds like a wonderful documentary, which can never be found in the main stream media...with commentary from those who knew Ernesto Che Guevera very well, and I want to get a copy of this film soon...

I think this person who wrote this anti- Cuban commentary, instead of just commenting on the film, probably never visited Cuba and is just regurgitating anti Cuba propaganda that can be found at many anti cuba links on the internet. I myself have never visited Cuba but I would love to be able to, but unfortunately US travel policy restricts US citizens from traveling there, and in order to go one must first travel to another nation. Oh yeah... as Phil Ochs said in the US you can go to Disneyland but you can't go to Cuba... No thats real freedom for you...

But I have met others who have traveled to Cuba and they told me of Cubans they met there who had come to the US, and ended up living in some ghetto in Miami, or Chicago, in which they couldn't go out of there homes after 7:00 or 8:00 PM because they would be afraid of being harrased threatened or victimized by the local criminals and could not find much freedom in this kind of living, so they went back to Cuba, where they could come and go from there homes at anytime of day or night, and not fear for their lives. They asked my friend how people can continue to live like that in the US, and that this was not really freedom from their perspective. Now here in the US Cubans who have gone back to Cuba because of their disillusionment with the US, are never mentioned in the media or elsewhere... I wonder why?