Posted on 05/25/2008 7:58:24 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Benicio Del Toro, 'Latino Brad Pitt', wins Cannes award as 'Che'
by Claire Rosemberg Sun May 25, 3:59 PM ET
CANNES, France (AFP) - Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro, the Puerto Rican-born star often dubbed the "Latino Brad Pitt", won Cannes' Best Actor award Sunday for his role as "Che" Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's film on the revolutionary hero.
"I'd like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara," said the actor, after accepting his second big award under the US director's helmsmanship.
"I wouldn't be here without Che Guevera, and through all the awards the movie gets you'll have to pay your respects to the man."
And taking one reporter's question after Cannes' red-carpet awards ceremony, all Del Toro saw was her "Che" T-shirt. "I like the shirt," he said several times.
Del Toro, 41, transmutes into a larger-than-life Che in the marathon four-hours-plus movie.
"Che" charts two episodes in the life of the guerrilla hero -- the late 1950s ouster of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista alongside Fidel Castro, and Che's subsequent aborted bid to bring the Cuban revolution to Bolivia.
Some critics slammed the film shot in Spanish for its length and meticulous documentary-style presentation, as well as for failing to focus on the politically controversial aspects of the Cuban revolution.
Soderbergh needed to tighten it for average movie-goers, they said.
The US director back in 2000 propelled Del Toro into the movie limelight, when he bagged best supporting Oscar for his role as a restrained Mexican police officer walking the moral high ground in "Traffic".
Del Toro, original name Benicio Monserrate Rafael Del Toro Sanchez, also played five years earlier in the blockbuster "The Usual Suspects", where he was the mumbling gangster Fenster.
He has also been directed by the head of this year's Cannes jury Sean Penn, in 1990 "The Indian Runner" and "The Pledge", 2001.
Born in Puerto Rico to lawyer parents, he moved to the United States at the age of nine when his mother died and studied commerce before deciding, secretly, to change to acting.
Del Toro, who has a quiet but immensely strong presence, was involved from the start on the "Che" film, which took nine years of research and 60 million dollars to complete.
In Cannes for the screening, he recounted how like the average American he grew up with a bad guy image of Cuba's hero until stumbling on a book on the guerrilla leader in Mexico.
"He had a really warm smile. I bought the book and then read more. The love people had for this man made me more interested," he said.
Del Toro started his career on television before playing the youngest James Bond villain ever in "Licence To Kill".
One of his most recent star roles was in the much-noticed 2002 movie by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu "21 Grams" where he plays a former convict-turned-religious fanatic who kills two children and their father in a road accident.
Other major roles have been as a corrupt cop in "Sin City" by Robert Rodriguez in 2005, and as a drugged-out lawyer playing alongside Johnny Depp in Terry Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", a 1998 movie about journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
There you have it. This is going to be a love fest for one of the most brutal scumbags you could ever read about. Hollywood is embracing this with open arms and will be marketing the shirts, hats, posters,dvd's, you name it come Oscar time.
So many kids I see in my neighborhood who come from upper middle class homes wear this crap and preach how he is a hero for the common man.
The campaign to destroy this movie needs to begin immediately.
Bennie the Bull is full of it...
Del Toro is a disgraceful idiot! Imagine an actor winning an award for portraying Hitler and then thanking him. It goes to prove that the Left is not opposed to mass murder as long as it’s a Leftist that’s doing it. They accuse Bush of murdering innocent Iraqis, but worship a totalitarian murderer like Che. Hypocrisy, thy name is Leftism.
LOL...I didn’t even know they made a film about the Butcher of a Prison warden, a pity he wasn’t hung instead of shot.
It has been pointed out elsewhere that the movie completely avoids Che’s gleeful role as the head executioner at La Cabana prison immediately after the Revolution:
“In a six-month period, Guevara implemented Castro’s orders with zeal, putting 180 prisoners in front of the firing squad after summary trials, according to Machover. Jose Vilasuso, an exiled lawyer, recalled Guevara instructing his “court” in the prison: “Don’t drag out the process. This is a revolution. Don’t use bourgeois legal methods, the proof is secondary. We must act through conviction. We’re dealing with a bunch of criminals and assassins.””
After all, the damn thing’s over four hours long.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2461399.ece
Perhaps they will be historically accurate and title the movie:
“Castro’s Executioner”
Right.
Wearing a Che t-shirt is like wearing a Sammy “The Bull” Gravano t-shirt.
How is Hollywood embracing it? Its having trouble finding a distributor. The Cannes Jury is more European than American.
What “average” movie goer sees a four hour movie about a mass murderer? These people have no clue.
He was very good in the Movie: Traffic. I just wish they could just act and keep their personal-political opinions to themselves./Just Asking - seoul62........
I’ll bet the applause at the end was for the subject of the movie and not its creators.
Well, there you have it.
Capitalism. ....everything Che despised. Yet the libs fail to see the irony.
Actually the movie is going to be released as the 4:30 film first and then broken down into 2 different films. One will be the start of his life and how he got to where he did and then the other film will be about his role as an adult.
Hollywood has been gushing over this film behind the scenes for a year now...all you have to do is read the boards, the comments, the production notes.
Just wait Oscar time...I want to see how this is going to play out because the entire film is in Spanish. Remember that Apocalypto and The Passion of the Christ were labeled in-eligible because it was not in the English language.
Let’s see if this standard applies to their hero Che.
And how many aren't here because of him?
Idiot.
What boards? IMDB? That’s Fan Boy city. And most people are talking about it as a folly the way we are now.
The Mel Gibson films were ineligble for Foreign Language film Oscar becase they weren’t submitted by any Foreign country which is the only way to get into the nominating list for that Oscar.
There have been lots of murderous thugs, but Hitler stands in lonely company as a destroyer of civilizations.
George McGovern.
Ishtar.
Baldy Khruschev's 4-hour UN speeches.
Syriana.
Now this piece of crap.
Well, the Marxists are consistent, you have to give them that much...
Heaven’s Gate and Ishtar are Marxist films?
Facts are still facts, though, no matter how much the revisionists wish they weren't and try to change history post facto.
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