Soderbergh’s “Che”–a ghastly box office FLOP!
Production costs: $58 million
North American receipts: $293,708
grossed $30 million worldwide however. Still--it lost money big-time.
Steven Soderbergh: 'I can see the end of my career'
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 Cuban Stories by Maria Martinez 
  
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12 comments to Soderbergh’s “Che”–a ghastly box office FLOP! |
      
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Like I used to say, you can put whipped cream on a mojon pie, but at the end of the day, it's still a pile of shit.
Putting politics aside for a second and playing the movie critic ...
Traffic was a brilliant film, and Soderbergh is obviously a very talented director. Benicio Del Toro as an actor alone is also very good and was even decent in Che from a merely acting regard. (Now with that said)
As for 'Che' (which I saw) the film had a landslide of problems that no doubt hurt its box office success in the U.S.
1. Spanish language film - Americans don't do subtitles
2. Way Too long - butt got numb after 4 hours
3. Not enough action - Nowadays audiences expect explosions galore. Now the 'Cuban Revolution' didn't feature much action to begin with so this was a lose-lose.
4. Lack of complexity - Che was painted as a cross between Moses and Gandhi. Even the biggest Che fanatic will usually recognize that he had a darker side and loved to coup de grace those he saw as traitors. This movie would have been much better for even Che fans I believe if it showed the darker side as well.
5. To much jumping around with no context - One minute Che is on a boat in 1956, and if you got up to pee and come back he is now at the UN in 1964. Not to worry though in 5 minutes he will be in 1959. The film also assumes that everyone watching it knows the basics around this time period, which most watchers probably had'nt a clue
As for the 30 mill take before DVD - I wonder how much DVD sales will take and if the film will make back the other 28 mill from them. I would guess not.
I'm sure Sasha Grey can sooth his pain, and put a smile on his face. If she can't, then the man's simply dead.
Now bringing Politics back into this ...
The film did a huge injustice to history by excluding La Cabana (among many other things). I know why Soderbergh really did it - because it would have shocked many Che-fans and not played well in the Karl Marx theater in Havana where 5,000 of the commie elites have it a standing ovation.
There should have been scenes with Che sitting atop El Paredon smoking a cigar while the Fuegos rang out. There should have also been several scenes where Che personally executes people and even a scene where he is sitting there eating his steak looking out the window while the firing squads go on.
By omiting these Soderbergh set himself up for a hail of rightful criticism. It would be like making a film on Lenin but omitting the Red Terror or Robespierre and leaving out the guillotine scenes.
"Soderbergh blames piracy" for his losses. I bought my DVD copy at Lippo Karawachi Mall in Jakarta for 8,000 rupiah, or about 75 cents. That's all I considered the film worth, as parts of it put me to sleep.
There is a God after all.
Poetic justice.
Why'd the film fail? Simple. Other than naive teens, college age kids and decrepit fat slob aging hippies who buy dope papers bearing his likeness, virtually everyone knows guevara was a mass murdering coward.
Soderberg ironically was married to Betsy Brantley, the actress who played one of two vacationing chicas in the 1990 film, "Havana".
Guevara is not a sympathetic character. American citizens know what he was and they don't like him, to say the least.
What posessed Soderberg to make a film about a gutless worm who enjoyed seeing others murdered, other than his innate infatuation with hollywood's false religion called communism?
Yeah, it's an old taunt, but if Soderberg & his hollyweird pals think che was such a swell guy, maybe they oughta try 'living' in the island of horrors that is che's legacy.
Surely, che's surviving thug cronies, el maricon and his big half-brother, The Old Man With The Bag, will be pleased to see him, take what is his, then do as they always do.
Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasota Key, Florida
15 July, 2009
"Yanqui businessmen are fools, adventurers, and piratical
idiots. Of course we will trade with them, take what is
theirs, and then kill them."
- fidel castro-ruz
ca. 1995
Soderbergh is at best a useful idiot, and probably worse. Unfortunately, he's an entirely typical Hollywood specimen. Maybe, if only for the sake of self-respect, we should treat Hollywood and its products the way they treat us. I already do.
paul vincent, I wish you were right about "everyone knowing" but I don't think you are.
For some reason Che's popularity is sort of seeing a revival in the last few years. It seems like every few days I see a kid with his face on a shirt- or a guy with his face tattooed on their arm.
We shouldn't assume the battle for truth has already been won - because I think it is far from that.
Speaking of Che T-shirts, I've got a couple of them. One of them says "Comemierda Comunista." The other says "Murdering Communist Bastard." (they came that way) I get a lot of laughs and hi-fives from Americans, Cubans and Argentinians.
Me, I'm always trying to make friends, so I wear them around liberal hangouts, but they haven't said anything yet. Darn it!
Count,
I wouldn't go with Spanish. The white hipsters probably think "Comemierda" means "long live"