The True Story of Che Guevara

Why would the asthmatic scion of a wealthy Argentine clan decide to sacrifice his privileged lifestyle (and, ultimately, his life) in pursuit of spreading Communism through military uprisings? Although 40 years have passed since Ernesto “Che” Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army in 1967, he's still one of the most hypnotically mysterious figures in the annals of revolutionary counterculture. Originally broadcast on The History Channel, filmmaker Maria Wye Berry's The True Story of Che Guevara features a parade of experts and witnesses who try to fill in the blanks of the Guevara story, but even despite solid input from the likes of biographer Jon Lee Anderson and CIA operative Felix Rodriguez, Guevara remains a charismatic cipher. Clearly his passion for Marxist revolution outpaced his ability to plant the seeds of turmoil (outside of the Cuban revolution, Guevara failed miserably in his military campaigns within civil war-torn Congo and later in Bolivia), and even his relatively brief period of political power (as Fidel Castro's right hand man in the early 1960s) consisted of little more than a series of economic and diplomatic catastrophes. If Guevara's photogenic visage remains omnipresent on posters and T-shirts today (he was also the subject of the 2004 feature film The Motorcycle Diaries), it's strictly because he looks the part of a rebel—a role he couldn't quite live up to, as confirmed in this well-researched, fascinating documentary. DVD extras include a timeline and bibliography of Guevara's published works. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Hall)