Chevolution (2008)
-
80% of critics liked it
(15 reviews) -
55% of users liked it
(2,074 ratings)
On March 5, 1960, Che Guevara, one of the architects of the Cuban revolution, attended a memorial service for seventy-five men who died while explosive cargo was being unloaded from a ship in the Havana harbor. Photographer Alberto Korda snapped a picture of Guevara at the event, and while it went… More On March 5, 1960, Che Guevara, one of the architects of the Cuban revolution, attended a memorial service for seventy-five men who died while explosive cargo was being unloaded from a ship in the Havana harbor. Photographer Alberto Korda snapped a picture of Guevara at the event, and while it went unpublished at the time, in the late Sixties an Italian publisher, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, asked Korda's permission to reproduce the image of the then-martyred revolutionary leader. Korda agreed, and within a few years his portrait of Che, wearing a beret and looking with determination to some point in the distance, became one of the most famous photos in the world. Korda didn't mind seeing the photo appear in unlikely places, from banners at protests to T-shirts, but in 2000 he filed suit against the producers of Smirnoff vodka after they used the picture in a magazine advertisement, arguing that he never intended it to be used for commercial purposes. Filmmakers Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez trace the strange journey of Korda's portrait of Che, from revolutionary symbol to advertising logo and an iconic but little-understood image often adopted by young people who aren't sure who the man is, in the documentary Chevolution. The film includes interviews with actors Antonio Banderas and Gael Garcia Bernal, both of whom have played Guevara on screen, and Tom Morello of the Leftist rock band Rage Against The Machine, who have used the Che portrait on their T-shirts. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Luis Lopez, Trisha Ziff
- Written By
- Trisha Ziff, Sylvia Stevens
- Genres
- Musical & Performing Arts, Documentary
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Apr 1, 2008 Wide
- Studio
- Red Envelope Entertainment
Critic Reviews
-
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Zippy enough, if a little meandering, and spends equal time on the man and the myth.
-
Ronnie Scheib, Variety
The pic comes off as too scattershot to do anything but skim the questions it raises about the nature of the image as spiritual beacon and corporate logo.
-
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
The Cannes Che, probably a film no one will see again, is a big, sprawling, ambitious mess. It's less a grand-opera mess than a beautifully constructed machine whose parts don't all quite work together.
-
Ian Buckwalter, DCist
A history of Guevara that not only succeeds in avoiding either blind lionization or reactionary condemnation, but that looks at him via the lens through which we most often see him: a single iconic photograph.
-
Phil Hall, IdentityTheory
A genuinely interesting film about a photograph that still, after 50 years, continues to haunt and intrigue us.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
Featured Audience Ratings
Currently unavailable on Flixster
Also available on
Other Retailers
Not Available
Subscription Services
Not Available
Not Available
