--- title: "Che: Part One: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/che-part-one/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/che-part-one" critics_score: 68 critics_reviews: 11 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Che: Part One (2008): what the critics said Critics' score 68 from 11 reviews: 8 positive, 2 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics are on the film’s side, though few love it without reservation. The praise clusters around Benicio Del Toro, whose quiet, matter-of-fact Guevara is repeatedly named as the thing holding the film together, and around Soderbergh’s decision to make a procedural about guerrilla warfare rather than a biopic about a famous man. Several reviews admire the attention to marches, tactics and the daily business of fighting, and Empire singles out the battle for Santa Clara. The reservations cluster just as tightly: the battle scenes repeat, the film is dry, and Che himself is given almost no inner life. Slant argues that Soderbergh’s professed neutrality drains the emotion from the story, and The AV Club finds it more interesting to think about than to sit through. The spread is wide. Time Out calls it monumental; The Times finds it bogged down in the mechanics of warfare and too respectful of the myth. ## Time Out — Geoff Andrew Rating 5/5. 7 January 2009. The critic calls it a monumental achievement and a great movie that rewards patience and proper attention. They single out its formal audacity and eschewal of traditional heroics in focusing on the process of revolutionary struggle rather than conventional biopic portraiture. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/che-part-one) ## The Guardian — Philip French Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 4 January 2009. The critic calls it an intelligent, fast-moving, well-researched film that offers a convincing account of the bitter struggle and a portrait of a great and complex revolutionary. The exciting, adventurous narrative with Guevara in virtually every scene is singled out for praise. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jan/04/che-part-1-review) ## Empire — Andrew Male Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2008. The critic finds Part One a dream-like if frustrating essay on the heroism and claustrophobia of war, perfectly centred by a compelling star performance. They single out the final battle for Santa Clara as a stunning set-piece. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/che-part-one-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Sheri Linden Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 12 December 2008. The critic praises the film’s resistance to conventional biopic tropes by emphasizing guerrilla strategy and tactics over psychology, singling out its meticulous compositions and the one emotionally naked moment involving a recalcitrant horse. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-dec-12-et-che12-story.html) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 22 May 2008. Festival review. The review praises Soderbergh’s measured approach that eschews grand gestures for an absorbing, thoughtful focus on personalities and political arguments. It highlights Benicio Del Toro’s commanding performance stressing Che the man rather than the hero, while noting the film grips intellectually but may seem dry to general audiences. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/che-part-one/4038770.article) ## The AV Club — Noel Murray, Scott Tobias Rating B-. 9 September 2008. Festival review. The four-hour, two-part film contains a surfeit of ideas and amazing scenes but is held together by mush, with lengthy battle sequences that feel slapped-together and a lack of visceral connection. It is fascinating in theory but more compelling as an intellectual exercise than as an actual moviegoing experience. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/the-a-v-club-at-tiff-08-day-5-1798215043) ## The New York Times — A.O. Scott Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 11 December 2008. The critic views Soderbergh’s two-part epic as a martial poem focused on arms and the man, praising its scope across insurgencies while noting its austere, repetitive motifs of facial hair, tobacco, and militant rhetoric. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/movies/12che.html) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 11 January 2009. The review highlights the film’s structure as two separate stories with Part One ending before the triumph in Havana, commending its focus on guerrilla training and deployment in the Sierra Maestra while noting omissions of Che’s later tyrannical actions. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/01/19/ches-way) ## The Telegraph Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2009. The critic describes the film as a bold and possibly perverse endeavour, a rangy 'guerrilla biopic' with painstaking fidelity to the factual record of Che's achievements. The arduous trudge of revolutionary warfare is singled out as the core experience, which may enlighten or perplex depending on taste. [Read the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/4059701/Che-Part-One-review.html) ## The Times — Cosmo Landesman Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 4 January 2009. The critic finds the film bogged down in repetitive battle scenes due to excessive fascination with the mechanics of guerrilla warfare. The failure to challenge the myth of Che or provide a more intimate look at the man is singled out for complaint. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/che-part-one-the-sunday-times-review-n0tm27r5sx8) ## Slant Magazine — Fernando F. Croce 26 September 2008. Soderbergh’s professed neutrality toward Guevara’s life and times succeeds mostly in leeching the emotion out of them. Too emotionally dry to embrace but too ingenious to dismiss, it is a fascinating, problematic film of intelligent fastidiousness rather than vivid inspiration. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/che/) ## The Hollywood Reporter 21 May 2008. Festival review. The critic finds the two-part biopic a highly worthwhile, professionally accomplished project overall. In its obsessive devotion to precise documentation, however, the film forgets to inspire, with Benicio del Toro's robust yet subtle portrayal singled out as the heart of the work. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/che-film-review-126170/) ## Paste — Jesse Jarnow Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 30 January 2009. Soderbergh and Del Toro treat Che’s life as a realist epic in an audacious four-hour-plus film focused on the guerrilla struggles. The critic singles out Guevara’s unbendable will, as embodied by Del Toro, and the irreducible language of the marches, rivers, and battles across Cuba in Part One. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/che-the-argentine-guerrilla) ## Eye for Film — Chris 2 January 2009. The critic finds Soderbergh's approach to Che's role in the Cuban revolution a calm, unspectacular procedural that comes close to documentary in its historical accuracy and focus on the demands of guerrilla warfare. Benicio Del Toro's restrained performance is singled out for praise as sincere and blending seamlessly with the quasi-documentary style. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/che-the-argentine-film-review-by-chris) ## The Playlist — Rodrigo Perez 11 September 2008. Festival review. The critic calls the TIFF screening of Part One an unadorned yet impressive achievement, praising its unsentimental, intimate depiction of the Cuban revolution as magnetically engrossing and understated like a tough-minded BBC film. Benicio del Toro's matter-of-fact performance and Soderbergh's efficient, literal documentary-like lens are highlighted for avoiding biopic clichés. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/tiff-review-che-argentine-is-unadorned-20080911/) ## The Skinny — Keir Roper-Caldbeck Rating ***. 4 February 2009. The critic finds Part One a ponderous but detailed procedural on the Cuban Revolution, highlighting the attention to the daily concerns and visual details of the guerrilla fighters while noting the lack of inner life for Che. [Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/che-parts-one-and-two) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/che-part-one.md