The War Room

CHE GUEVARA WITH A WHOLE LOT OF GOLDEN TOPPING

Film industry insider and columnist Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere has read director Steven Soderbergh's two scripts on the life of Che Guevara entitled, The Argentine and Guerilla.

Both films are to be released in 2008 and Wells believes they are virtually assured Oscar status.

But what of the portrayal of our affable, ubiquitous communist friend?

Do we see the real Che? The one who led death squads and inquisitions with glee, shot men and women of the cloth and worshipped Joseph Stalin?

Not according to Wells.

"In this respect the Cuban righties are not that wrong. The Argentine contains no La Cabana depictions -- nothing about what happened in the wake of Castro and Guevara''s triumph, and no reflections at all about the kind of country Cuba became under Castro since then. "

"And Guevara is clearly portrayed in a flattering light. As far as these screenplays represent what the films will ultimately be (the rule-of-thumb being that scripts are only blueprints), Buchman's Guevara is an imperfect but admirable fellow -- com- plex and dogged, tenacious but plagued by asthma, brave and strong but capable of error, rigid and dogmatic and, in Guerilla, oblivious to the basic shape of things, and yet basically decent and humane and certainly courageous to the last."

While a film such as 300 cleans up at the box office; a film that speaks to themes of chivalry, honour and dying for a cause one believes in; Hollywood instead is financing a doubled tiered effort to continue to propagandize about the legacy of one of the left's sacred icons.

Now these films will win awards, but they will also flop.

The problem is, even though films such as this, Jesus Camp, Deliver Us From Evil, Shooter, Babel or the de-Christianized Children of Men flop hard at the box office, they gain critical respect and a following on video.

In Toronto alone, it is hard to not walk anywhere in the Annex area and not see posters for screenings of Jesus Camp. Many of my friends have made references to the film since it became available on video. References that tell me they believe most Christians (of all denominations) are like depicted in the film.

Do not at all think that many of the problems the West faces now are not at least in some part caused by how much propaganda Hollywood has churned out in recent decades.

Films can reflect a culture, they can also persuade it.

posted by Nicol DuMoulin @ 4:36 AM