CHE

Che is a two-part 2008 biopic about Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Benicio del Toro as the title character. Taking a cinéma vérité stylistic approach, the pictorial diptych comprises two merged films entitled The Argentine and Guerrilla. Each part is intentionally illustrated with differing approaches to narrative linearity, camerawork, and aspect ratios; with such duality intended to be reflective of the two military campaigns' divergent outcomes. The first part, The Argentine, focuses on the Cuban revolution from when Fidel Castro, Guevara and other revolutionaries landed on the Caribbean island to when they successfully toppled the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista two years later. The second part, Guerilla, meanwhile focuses on Che's futile attempt to bring revolution to Bolivia along with his ill-fated demise.

Filmmaker Terrence Malick originally worked on a screenplay to only depict Guevara's attempts to start a revolution in Bolivia, but when financing fell through, Malick went on to another project and Soderbergh agreed to direct. He realized that there was no context for Guevara's actions in Bolivia and decided that his participation in the Cuban revolution and his appearance at the United Nations in 1964 should also be depicted in the film. Peter Buchman was hired to write the screenplay and result was so long that Soderbergh decided to divide the film into two parts: one chronicling Cuba and other depicting Bolivia. Filmmakers decided to shoot the film almost entirely in Spanish to give it credibility, but the decision also made it difficult to finance with Hollywood studios. Soderberg's project was ultimately financed with foreign money. Soderbergh shot the films back-to-back in the beginning of July 2007 with Guerrilla shot first in Spain for 39 days and The Argentine shot in Puerto Rico and Mexico for 39 days.

Che was screened as a single film at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. There, it received mixed reviews, and Del Toro won the Best Actor Award. IFC Films, which holds all North American rights to Che, initially released the combined film for one week on December 12, 2008 in New York City and Los Angeles in order to qualify for the year's Academy Awards. Strong box office performance led to the "special roadshow edition" being extended in New York and Los Angeles and later expanded into additional markets. The films were released in 25 markets beginning January 16 and 22 both as a single film and as two separate films, titled Che Part 1: The Argentine and Che Part 2: Guerrilla, and distribution expanded further after that. IFC released the films via video on demand on January 21 through all major U.S. cable and satellite providers in both standard and high definition versions.