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• -I think it's a big mistake to divide it into two separate movies. It's mostly in Spanish anyway so dividing it in two isn't going to make it any easier for American audiences who hate reading subtitles to swallow. They're better off presenting it as a four hour art house movie, having just two showings a day and charging a bit more. I do have to commend Soderbergh and Del Toro for filming it in Spanish instead of English with accents, really adds to the authenticity.
  
  -Other reason they should keep it as one movie is I think Part One is a lot more interesting than Two. If I had to pay separately I would feel a little let down by Part Two. Part One is a lot like Traffic, most of it follows Che across Cuba intercut with over exposure for scenes in Mexico City where he first meets Castro and black & white for when he was in New York after the fact; the different styles worked well going back and forth. Part Two is just a linear retelling of his last days in Bolivia and while there are some great scenes it just wasn't as interesting. Did remind me of The Thin Red Line except with hot brush-covered mountains instead of lush grass-covered ones. Scenes like a handful of Che's men hiding while the camera pans up to the mountain top with an entire battalion closing in were particularly effective. I guess the bottom line is Two doesn't really provide a satisfying resolution to everything that was built up in One.
  
  -I don't know what the real Che was like so I don't know how good a job Benicio did in portraying him but his performance was outstanding and I can understand why he won Best Actor at Cannes and hope he at least gets nominated come Oscar time.
  
  -Really isn't the Lawrence of Arabia of this generation, not anywhere near as epic in scope (literally) to me. Mountains aren't the same as vast deserts, there aren't any scenes like the appearance of Sherif Ali from the horizon or the Aqaba scene that pans from the desert to the sea with the cannons facing the wrong way. A similar train derailment scene has nothing on the one in LofA. It is epic enough that I would try and see it in a theater as opposed to VOD but if it's your only option you won't lose as much as like seeing LofA on a TV would.
  
  -I suppose if there's a failure of Che it's that I now only know events of his life but not much about the man himself. Del Toro's performance conveys Che's passion but I don't have an opinion on the man one way or another. I'm guessing the final takeover of Havana/Cuba and the aftermath might have given more insight but this is totally left out of the film.
  
  -Any fan of Soderbergh or Del Toro should definitely see it even as two separate movies. Who knows, I may have appreciated Two more if I had time to let One sink in.

Antoine Doinel wrote:The roadshow screenings have been extended into January. I hope the financial success of these screenings encourages IFC to expand the offering to other cities.

chaddoli wrote:That's correct. Don't quite know why he decided to do that.

Antoine Doinel wrote:According to IMDB, Part One is 2:35:1 and Part Two is 1:85:1.

Let me tell you what is incredible about Steven Soderbergh in my eyes.

1. Academy Award winning Director.

2. Loves to shoot his own stuff. And edit it.

3. He doesn't ask anyone's permission to do what he thinks will work.

4. Made a decision to shoot two Ché features (Benecio Del Toro) based on seeing Peter Jackson footage and one quick test shoot at his house (with Jarred, Deanan and myself) on two prototype, pre-production RED ONE cameras.

5. Assembles his troops in Spain waiting for two RED ONEs to show up. Has told his team he does not need backup cameras. RED will come through. We got the CF cards working minutes before shooting begins by emailing firmware to Deanan, Rob and Ivan in Spain. They then drive to location and fire up the cameras and start rolling...

6. 1st day shooting in a walk down only valley, 100+ degree temperature. Cameras overheat. SS says "put ice packs on them until RED can figure this out" and continues shooting. Continues this process for a few days until we can email a firmware upgrade. Pre-production firmware, no exposure assist or frame guides of any kind, 24fps only... barely more advanced than "Boris" and "Natasha" used by Peter Jackson. Never complains. Not once. Only... "happy to be here".

7. Sends me an email how thrilled he is to shoot RED and probably will never shoot anything else, no matter what the budget. Loves the cameras.

8. After finishing the 1st (2nd) Ché movie, decides to shoot the next one anamorphic. We tell him he is nuts. He believes that we will find a way to make it work. We do. He is thrilled with the results.

9. After shooting and editing the two Ché movies, SS informs us he is shooting "The Informant" (Matt Damon) on RED. "What do you have in the way of improvements?" We give him Build 15. Off he goes.

10. Next up is "The Girlfriend Experience". Shot on RED Build 18 (with anamorphic support). His 1st AC surprises him onset that he can actually view the anamorphic footage correctly on his monitor. He wrote me a note to tell me, "you won't believe how good this stuff looks... well, maybe you will."

11. Next up... 3D on RED.

I have to say several things about Steven. He is wickedly smart. He never gets flustered (that I have seen). He is an incredible story-teller... one of the best.

He never once complained about "what RED couldn't do". He always made work what he could do with any given version of RED. If I tell him that we just enabled something, he'll respond with something like "well that will be nice. I could use that." Steven has never once asked us for any special treatment... only pushing us along by believing in us. Amazing what a powerful technique that is.

Sometimes on this board we get so carried away with every spec, feature or wish that we paralyze ourselves with actually doing something. I have learned a lot from Steven. Not just about cameras and shooting, but about living. "We have what we have and that is plenty enough (for today) to do something meaningful. If you give me more, I'll do more. But I have enough now." I just love his philosophy.

I have met many people during my business career. Michael Jordan is a close friend. As is Lance Armstrong. Steven Soderbergh soars to the elite list of people that inspire me. Peter Jackson is on that list as well. None of these people are on my list because they are big names. It is because they are big people doing big things without complaining about "what they don't have". Lance never said "I can't do this anymore because I have cancer". Peter never said, "OK... I'll look at these prototypes when they are really ready."

God love those that are brave and inspire us. Today, it is Steven Soderbergh for me. Not only did he believe in RED, he didn't wait for someone else to "do it" before he got brave and shot a large budget film(s) on completely unproven prototypes. He forced us to perform by believing in us. How could we ever let him down?

Jim

lacritfan wrote:I suppose if there's a failure of Che it's that I now only know events of his life but not much about the man himself. Del Toro's performance conveys Che's passion but I don't have an opinion on the man one way or another. I'm guessing the final takeover of Havana/Cuba and the aftermath might have given more insight but this is totally left out of the film.

Zumpano wrote:Selfishly, I just want to know if Seattle is going to get this badboy.

Antoine Doinel wrote:

Zumpano wrote:Selfishly, I just want to know if Seattle is going to get this badboy.

Yep, and so are eight other cities.

ranaing83 wrote:Does anyone have any idea if the Roadshow version contains scenes that won't be in the film when it is split and released in 2 parts?

knives wrote:Yeah, it's finally coming to San Diego. I'm nervous though because it says 'special admission applies'. Anyone able to translate, can I just go in on a Saturday without doing anything special?

lacritfan wrote: Who knows, I may have appreciated Two more if I had time to let One sink in.[/list]