With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Soderbergh takes on 'tough,' controversial 'Che'

Steven Soderbergh made certain his new movie,"Che," about the life of revolutionary Ernesto"Che" Guevara, couldn't be attacked -- at least on a factual level.

"I didn't mind someone saying, 'Well, your take on him, I don't really like,' or 'You've left these things out and included these things.' That's fine," Soderbergh said."What I didn't want was for somebody to be able to look at a scene and say, 'That never happened.'"

But he's aware that he's going to be accused of romanticizing the Argentine doctor and Marxist guerrilla who helped Cuba's Fidel Castro launch the first and only victorious socialist revolution in the Americas. He doesn't buy the criticism.

"I don't have sort of a personal investment in making him look one way or another," Soderbergh said in one interview with CNN."I picked [these periods in his life] because I was interested in the specifics of how you wage a war like this -- mostly because I don't believe you can wage a war like this anymore."

In a separate interview, he added,"He killed people and he was pretty up-front about it, and he was a hard character. And the movie's kind of a process film about trying to wage a certain kind of revolution. ... I think he comes across as pretty tough."

Read entire article at CNN