50 years ago, in 1965, Che Guevara left his government job in Havana, Cuba, seeking out more revolution in Africa and South America. It was the rebirth of Che, The Guerilla. It was also Che’s first step toward his own death. Remembering Che and his indefatigable taste for revolt, here’s a doc about the man and his life. It’s a pretty conservative doc, but the most thorough I could find on YouTube. Here’s some words from Progressive about Che and the movie…
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the apostle of guerrilla warfare and world revolution, was killed forty-seven years ago in Bolivia on October 9, 1967 at the age of thirty-nine.
Che was the left’s James Bond, a swashbuckling Twentieth Century Robin Hood and Sir Galahad. To the right, he was a fanatical, bloodthirsty murderer.
The handsome, youthful, cigar-smoking, beret-clad Bohemian-looking revolutionary has become an icon of protest the world over.
At demonstrations around the globe Che’s image—emblazoned on T-shirts, posters, and tchochkes—is displayed more than that of any other defender of the poor and oppressed.
Despite being a guerrilla warrior Che famously said: “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”
In addition to being charismatic, Che was asthmatic, a condition which presumably gave him insight into human suffering, but did not slow him down. He went on plunging into jungles when he could have rested on his laurels in an air conditioned office as a bureaucrat in Havana instead.
Che has inspired numerous documentaries and features. To remember and honor this indefatigable champion of the wretched of the Earth, here’s a list of the top ten films about Ernesto Che Guevara de la Serna —fallen, but not forgotten.
Here’s their take on the flick…
Ernesto gets the History Channel treatment in this nuts and bolts nonfiction film that covers the basics of its subject’s tumultuous life. Onscreen sources in Maria Berry’s 90 minute, 2007 documentary include Guevara biographer Jon Lee Anderson, Peter Kornbluh (who recently exposed Henry Kissinger’s purported plan to attack Cuba during the 1970s), Nikita Khrushchev’s son Sergei, Che contemporaries, etc. The doc has a centrist-to-conservative point of view; Anderson calls Che’s efforts to export revolution an attempt to start “World War III.” The film utilizes reenactments plus great newsreel footage, including the rebels’ triumphant march into Havana where they’re welcomed by joyous crowds.
Here’s the doc…
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