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Under discussion:

Lawrence of Arabia  (1962)

Guerrilla  (2008)

The Argentine  (2008)

It may seem a bit early to write 1700+ words on the greatness of Steven Soderbergh’s two-part Che Guevara epic, especially without having actually seen the films (titled The Argentine and Guerrilla), but that couldn’t stop Jeff Wells from contributing such a piece to The Huffington Post yesterday. At least the guy has read the screenplays, both penned by Peter Buchman, but otherwise it’s all a lot of confident speculation and hopeful anticipation, particularly for Benicio Del Toro’s performance, which Wells is sure will be garner Oscar talk (didn’t the casting alone garner such talk two years back?):

With Benicio del Toro, the moody and mesmerizing Marlon Brando-ish actor whose work keeps getting deeper and more fascinating, all but certain to stir Oscar talk for his performance as Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the legendary Argentine/Cuban firebrand. Even if the Che movies turn out to be problematic, Del Toro can’t not whip ass. He’s too strange, too gifted. Guevara is too perfect a role for him. All the stars and planets are aligned.

Wells may actually be more excited about these films than anyone has ever been excited about one film (let alone two) and he goes so far as to compare the two films to Lawrence of Arabia. Basically he just likens the Che character arc to that of T.E. Lawrence and so calls the films “Lawrence of Latin America”, though it’s pretty evident that Wells is really thinking Soderbergh’s epic will be as great as David Lean’s. He even suggests that whichever distributor ends up releasing the film do so as “a single, gargantuan Lawrence of Arabia-styled deal with an intermission, running between four or four and a half hours? Initially shown on a reserved-seat basis with a Maurice Jarre-type score with an overture, entre’acte and exit music? You know…for old times’ sake?”

Unfortunately for Wells, the films will likely be given separate releases. Although, from the way Wells makes it sound, the films could barely even be picked up for any kind of release, as the distributors aren’t nearly as excited as he is:

No U.S. distributor has signed on, in part over concerns about the Spanish-language dialogue (American audiences are notoriously “rural” in their attitudes about subtitles), and in part because it’s been determined by Soderbergh that the films have to be seen as a two-part whole with their release to occur within weeks or possibly days of each other. Given the indisputable fact that we are living in the most dumbed-down era of American moviegoing (certainly in terms of the mass audience) since the invention of the movie camera, how many popcorn-munchers are going to be willing, much less eager, to go four hours plus with Che Guevara? Especially given their reluctance to support even Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodrigeuz’s Grindhouse, a two-part, three-hour popcorn movie about hot women, zombies and car chases?

Certainly he’s exaggerating the lack of appeal for these films, just as he’s overreacting in his extreme excitement for them sight unseen. I believe they will be great, and I believe that they’ll be successful, but let’s let the pair of epics premiere at Cannes before we go overboard, shall we? Alright, well, I guess considering yesterday the internet was already all abuzz about Soderbergh’s post-Che project that Wells can be forgiven for jumping the gun.