Benicio del Toro on playing Che Guevara

Benicio del Toro tells the Guardian's Alex von Tunzelmann how he felt the weight of historical responsibility when playing the Latin American revolutionary in Steven Soderbergh's biopic, and why everyone needs to see Che: Part Two

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[ScarletSnake]

To those ignorant assholes out there who want to talk shit: Have you ever heard of Juan Almeida Bosque? He was one of the key figures in the Cuban revolution, a very dear friend of Guevara's and he was BLACK. After the revolution he became a key figure in the state affairs. This was while The US still had Afro-Americans trying to get equal rights for themselves.Also if Che was a racist, why did he fight and risk his life in Congo? He fought for the freedom of the locals who were being oppressed.

[tripfontan]

Che wasn't racist, he fought for Africans. find a Klansman who will do that

[Bastiat90]

It must be so easy being a communist, as you never have to engage with reality, living as you do in a world of good intentions corrupted by false consciousness and imperialism. Stalinism was in place before 1924 as Lenin and Trotsky had established the Cheka, the Gulag system etc. The Red Terror preceeded the Great Purge. Trotsky crushed the Krondstadt rebellion. Communism was tried and it failed everywhere because it contradicts human nature.

[Bastiat90]

Americans are allowed to own private property. They can criticise their government without fear of reprisal. They can own a car. They can elect their leaders. They can live in a free country without swimming across shark infested waters to do so. They can work in the private sector rather than be a parasite of the state.

[Bastiat90]

He was a murderer!  Hitler had good intentions for the Aryan peoples of Germany. Does that make him a good man?

[goldenmunky123]

stalin and mao were not communists. even cuba is not truely communist country, no matter how much they wanted it to be - which is why it's so sad. every failed example of communism we have seen has either been a complete lie (stalin's state-capitalism ...) or corrupted by lack of resources and monopolies of power (usa trade blockade on cuba). fucking hell, it's so simple and yet so many people brush it off as totalitarianism. read!!!!

[goldenmunky123]

research the dictatorship of the proletariat. fidel's has never been able to end. you may think that he is evil and corrupted by power, but personally i think that if che's global revolution had been successful, the dictatorship would have withered away everywhere eventually. there are not many men who could achieve what fidel and che did. maybe you hate 'communism', but remember that real communism has never actually been allowed to flourish. i believe fidel would like it to, however.

[goldenmunky123]

of course there are things about cuba's current political system that are awful for some people who live there. lack of freedom, poverty etc... although it's ridiculous to say that americans are any more free than cubans. yes, you have freedom of speech, but no onewe listens to you let alone cares. yes, there is 'equality of opportunity' but what the fuck does that mean if you're poor? the usa is violently anti-socialist (wrongly), and that is evident in the brainwashing of it's people.

[goldenmunky123]

THIS is what che was aiming to do. to give all children a moral, political, philosophical, psychological education, so that every human being was able to understand themselves and the best way for our species to exist. capitalism will not go down without a fight - we see that every day, and it is illustrated in the assassination of che himself. this is why castro prepared his revolutionaries for a fight - because he knew men like batista and knew that otherwise, cuba would continue to suffer.

[goldenmunky123]

to anyone who has commented arguing that che guevara was a murderer/racist/sadist, please look at communism in context. if you read marx's true ideals, you will see that all it means in true equality: full equality. look at bakunin's ideals (anarcho-communism) of the anarchist existence that COULD be achieved if capitalism were overthrown and, in the words of rousseau, everyone was allowed to achieve 'perfect enlightenment'... through education...