T-Shirt Che, Movie Che, Real-Life Che

Just like a lot of kids who grew up in the Sixties, I absorbed a vague idea of who Che Guevara was. Maybe because I grew up in one of the mellow beach towns of Southern California instead of, say, Berkeley, I never saw anyone actually wear a Che t-shirt. There was always one hanging on the wall in any t-shirt shop in counterculture-ish places like Venice Beach, though.

Still is. Right next to the Jim Morrison and Bob Marley t-shirts. As many have pointed out, the great irony of Che Guevara is the sheer amount of capitalist enterprise that has been built around his image.

We just finished watching The Motorcycle Diaries, in which a pair of adventurous young men travel throughout Latin America on an old Norton motorcyle. One of them happens to be Che Guevara, idealistic young medical student, a few years before his involvement in the Cuban revolution.

And we're talking extremely idealistic here: it wouldn't be out of line to compare Movie Che to Jesus, right down to his healing lepers.

It's an entertaining movie and the lead characters are appealing. Although we all know historical movies are almost always completely made up by screenwriters who have never cracked open a history book, I have no reason to doubt that Guevara was an honorable young man who saw widespread poverty among the natives of Latin America, not incorrectly pinned it on imperialists, and saw communist revolution as the best way to oppose those imperialists.

I found myself wondering about the motivation of the filmmakers, though. Either they purposely told a dishonest story or they purposely told an incomplete story. I feel a little insulted when I sense I'm being propagandized.

Politics aside, wouldn't it be a much more interesting movie, if the filmmakers had explored how the idealistic young man evolved into Generalissimo Guevara, presiding over the execution of thousands of Cubans and founding Cuba's labor camps? I remember an episode of "The Twilight Zone" that more deeply explored the tragic paranoia of power in a mere half-hour screenplay. Not everyone can be Rod Serling, but they could have given a shot.

On the DVD's extra features, Robert Redford enthuses about the Young Che character. It made me think of the accusations I've heard conservative talk show hosts make about "Hollywood liberals". Is Robert Redford just an empty head living in an insular world? I suspect not. I'll bet it has more to do with invoking Che being a great way to piss off conservatives.

To sum up. T-shirt Che: pretty cool. Movie Che: pretty cool. Real life Che: not so cool.