The box cover from the Criterion Collection DVD

Mishima is about the life of Yukio Mishima, a Japanese author, poet, actor, and imperialist. Director Paul Shrader eschewed the traditional biographical approach, instead focusing on the last day of Mishima’s life and intercutting it with both his past and elements of his written works. The result is a film that delves into Mishima’s mind to examine the meaning of his last act: commiting ritual suicide after trying to incite the soldiers of the Eastern Command of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to a coup d’etat.

In stark contrast is Steven Soderbergh’s Che which I saw in roadshow format at the IFC Center on Christmas Eve.

A Movie Poster for “Che”

This film is clearly presented from Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s point-of-view. The two primary sources for the material were Guevara’s own diaries. Thus, the film is very much a pro-Che affair: it does not attempt a balanced look at Guevara’s life. If anything, the film stands in awe of the man.

The celluloid Che is an enigma and Soderbergh never tries to explain him. The question of what made this man the man he was is never asked and never answered. They are content to simply march the enigma through time and place, from Mexico to Cuba to Bolivia. He arrives an unknown and leaves the same way.

All that we learn is chronological. We learn nothing about the man. The contrast with Mishima is stark. While Che shows much more of Guevara’s actual life, I learned much less about him than I did about Mishima, much less anything interesting about the man. This is probably why, in retrospect, I enjoyed Mishima much more. It grows under inspection while Che wilts. Che describes the revolutionary but nothing more. After more than four hours of screen time, I have no better an understanding of the man than if I had spent a minute staring at one of the ubiquitous Che t-shirts. I expected more and wanted more. Even after four hours, the film could not or would not give it to me.

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