Steven Sodebergh's epic films, Che Part I & II, give a detailed portrayal of the experience of Argentinean-born socialist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara in the Cuban revolutionary war and his failed Bolivia campaign that ended in his execution on October 9, 1967.
The films are based directly on Che's own writings, Part I on Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War and Part II on The Bolivian Diaries.
Sodebergh uses the naturalistic techniques of cinema verite ("cinema of truth") to bring these experiences to life. Benicio Del Toro provides an astonishingly real performance as Che, and his success in capturing Che's looks and bearing give the film much of its weight.
However, while Sodebergh's technique works artistically, a drawback is too little broader context is provided. This can cause confusion about what is happening when, and also leaves out much of the background.
One result is that Che Part I provides a distorted picture of the Cuban Revolution, which triumphed in January 1959. The mass, urban struggle against the Batista dictatorship is almost totally excluded and is downplayed when mentioned.
The fault is at least partly Che's, reflecting his political bias. He downplayed the importance of the urban mass struggle to the revolution's success — an error that ultimately cost him his life.
Despite the lack of context, through the events and conversations that occur, key factors such as the class nature of the struggle, and the brutality of the oppressor and humanity of the rebels, are revealed.
Che Part I opens in Mexico in 1955 with Che meeting Fidel Castro, who details the terrible condition of poverty and exploitation facing the Cuban people. Che says it is the same all over Latin America.
It shows how the Rebel Army led by Castro, which landed in Cuba in 1956, grew in strength from a dozen initial survivors to a powerful force that swept away Batista's army. It shows how the support of the peasants was won on the basis of land reform policies, and the principles of humanity that drove the revolutionaries.
Through the armed struggle, Che, who joined as a doctor, became a revolutionary leader guided by his sense of self-sacrifice, dedication and revolutionary principles.
It is interspersed with scenes of Che speaking in 1964 to the United Nations General Assembly and to a US journalist, which provides some broader perspective.
Che Part I is inspiring, ending with the triumph of the revolution. Che Part II, however, ends in defeat.
It starts with Che disappearing from Cuba in 1965 and Castro reading Che's letter explaining he had left Cuba to spread the revolution.
In 1966, Che began an armed campaign with a few dozen guerrillas in Bolivia, taking on the military dictatorship of Rene Barrientos.
The film shows how the US government directed the Barrientos regime's brutal anti-insurgency campaign via CIA "military advisers".
The reasons for Che's failure become clear through the film.
Che faced the hostility of the Bolivian Communist Party (PCB), which, on Soviet orders, refused to support his campaign. This left Che's group, the National Liberation Army of Bolivia (ELN), without organised support.
In Cuba, Castro's Rebel Army relied on the support of the mass-based the July 26 Movement, with deep roots in Cuban society, including in urban areas.
The ELN's isolation was worsened by the fact the group was led by foreigners.
That these young men and women were willing to die to spread the revolution was admirable internationalism. However, it meant the group was not rooted in Bolivian society.
The campaign also started in the Nancahuazu valley, a particularly isolated part of Bolivia where the peasants' suspicion of foreigners was strong. Promises the revolution would bring hospitals, schools, roads and land were not enough to win them over.
The guerrillas won some support from the most militant sector of the Bolivian population — the tin miners. A character in the film details the miners' horrific conditions — 50% of miners don't live past 30.
A miners' strike breaks out and the miners pledge financial support to the ELN.
However, with the guerrillas isolated in a remote part of the country, it wasn't enough. The Bolivian government crushed the strike with a bloody massacre.
Isolated, the guerrillas were defeated and a wounded Che captured. The order for his execution was given.
Che was shot dead and his lifeless body paraded on a stretcher.
The film shows PCB leader Mario Monje, who worked to undermine Che's campaign, telling Che conditions are not right for armed struggle in Bolivia. Che responds that wherever there is exploitation, the conditions are right.
It is true that wherever there is exploitation, conditions exist to wage a struggle for revolutionary change. However, it doesn't mean conditions are always right for one particular form of struggle.
Che sought to artificially impose one aspect of the Cuban Revolution, the guerrilla war, onto the Bolivian reality.
Che tells Monje: "The Cuban Revolution has shown that a popular uprising without an armed struggle cannot succeed."
It is true that every revolution has had to break the violent resistance of the old ruling class. Six years after Che's execution, this lesson was driven home with the overthrow of the elected left-wing government in Chile and the drowning of the largely unarmed popular movement in blood.
However, the failure of the Bolivia campaign proves that the other side of that equation is equally true: an armed struggle not based on a popular movement will not succeed either.
Che was proven wrong in his belief that a small group starting an armed struggle could bring such a movement into being by its example.
The two parts of Che show the profound internationalism of Che's revolutionary politics — an Argentinean who helped make the revolution in Cuba, then gave up his position and family to die trying to spread it to Bolivia.
In Che Part I, Che's UN speech and his interview with a US journalist reveal his internationalism even further. He insists Cuba's problem is with the US government, not its people who are also exploited.
Not mentioned in the film is Che's work starting an armed struggle in the Congo after he first left Cuba.
Che's determination to spread the revolution was also a response to the brutal war on Vietnam. In a letter published six months before his death, Che called for practical assistance to the Vietnamese people fighting for liberation by opening new fronts of struggle, creating "one, two, three, many Vietnams".
More than four decades after Che's execution, his ideas and example retain their potency. The system he died seeking to destroy is still responsible for war and exploitation — and threatens human survival through ecological disaster.
The Cuban Revolution has just celebrated its 50th birthday and new revolutions are breaking out across Latin America.
Symbolically, on the 40th anniversary of Che's death, the left-wing Bolivian President Evo Morales, an indigenous leader of impoverished peasants, paid tribute to Che as a great revolutionary in a special ceremony.
These beautifully made films, though they only offer snapshots of Che's life and the struggles he led, show much of why Che Guevara remains a symbol of rebellion and hope.
Che's hatred of capitalism rings just as true today. His sense of sacrifice and dedication to burying this system needs to be emulated.