On Movies: 'Che' doing better than director dreamed

'It's like that scene at the end of

Carrie,"

says

Steven Soderbergh

, describing the feeling he's had - and keeps having - when it comes to the long and complicated production known as

Che

.

"You know when the hand comes out of the ground and grabs

Amy Irving

by the throat?" he says of that final, jolting moment in

Brian De Palma's

horror classic. "Every time I think it's over, something happens to bring it back to life and demand my attention."

In the latest case, that's a good thing. Because of its length (almost 41/2 hours) and the fact that it covers two distinct periods in

Ernesto "Che" Guevara's

life, original plans were to release

Che

in theaters as separate movies: the Cuban Revolution part, and the end days of the Argentine physician-turned-Marxist-guerrilla, when he led a failed insurgency in 1960s Bolivia.

But when a "roadshow" version opened in New York and Los Angeles at year's end as a single film, playing without trailers or credits, but with an intermission (and a nifty printed program), the box office was so good it threw Soderbergh and IFC Films for a loop.

Che

broke house records on both coasts.

Clearly, audiences were ready to hunker down and watch

Benicio Del Toro

- winner of the best actor prize at 2008's Cannes - as Che and his ragtag band tromp through the greenery, bent on a coup.

"It's performed better than we could ever have hoped," says the director, on the phone from L.A. "It's obvious that people prefer the roadshow . . . so we've been hustling to get it out there."

Che

opened Friday at the Ritz Five.

Soderbergh, 45, knew little about the man or his history before getting involved in the

Che

biopic. At one point early on, the filmmaker - whose work includes groundbreaking indies (

sex, lies, and videotape

), Hollywood hits (

Ocean's Eleven

, etc.) and out-and-out experimental (

Schizopolis

) - bowed out to let

Terrence Malick

take the reins.

"I was onboard for a couple of years, and then Terry came on," Soderbergh says. "He had been in Bolivia when Che was killed, as a journalist trying to get that story, and the film initially was just Bolivia, so I stepped aside to let Terry take over."

But the timing wasn't right, Malick went off to make

The New World

, and Soderbergh returned.

"It got very messy, and so I came back to keep it alive. But when I read the script, I thought we can't just do Bolivia, we've got to expand this - you don't understand why Che is here, what the context was.

"So I was the one who started talking about Cuba and New York [Che goes to the United Nations] and Mexico City [Che and the

Castro

brothers hatch plans]. . . .

"A year and a half into that process, we had one gigantic script with four time lines in it, and it just wasn't working. And that's when the decision to divide it in half came about, and then creatively at least, things started to get solved

."

In retrospect, Soderbergh realizes he probably should have "gone to HBO or someone" and done a 10-hour mini-series. "I could have done a lot more Che/Fidel stuff . . . and then there's the whole chapter when Che goes to the Congo. . . . It was frustrating not to be able to use all this research we had amassed."

Still, what Soderbergh has done, capturing in small moments the epic achievements of this revered and despised figure, is extraordinary. Dispensing with biographical backstory, Soderbergh puts Che in the mountains and forests of Cuba, and shows how he, Castro and other rebel leaders recruited, trained, strategized and battled.

Soderbergh says that there's a "romantic idea" of what staging a revolution must be like - an idea that Hollywood has played no small part in perpetuating.

"And whereas there are times where I'm sure it is exciting, more often than not you're waiting around. There is a lot of activity that has nothing to do with fighting that takes up your day."

And if the Che Guevara that Del Toro portrays comes off as somewhat cold and aloof, that, too, was intentional.

"Che's fighting for an idea, he's often fighting for people that he's never met," says Soderbergh. "On a day-to-day basis, there isn't a lot of expression of emotion. It's really about process, about survival. And I knew that for some people the film would be perceived as cold. . . .

"But again, that's what came out of my research in talking to people about him, and what it was like to be around him. He was not a very embraceable character."

At the same time, there was something about the man that clearly inspired others to follow. Guevara led a revolution, helped install a Communist government, served in Castro's cabinet and became, posthumously, a pop icon - his bereted and bearded likeness adorning T-shirts and posters the world over.

"I think anyone who's passionate is compelling," Soderbergh explains. "And when you're taking passion to this level of self-sacrifice, then it really becomes interesting."

Soderbergh, too, found something to relate to about this man, his obsessions, his drive.

"This idea of going out into the jungle with a group of people to try and do something - you know, it's a little like making a movie," says the director, who has two new films coming this year -

The Girlfriend Experience

with porn star

Sasha

Grey

, and

The Informant

with

Matt Damon

.

"And I think that's why I started to gravitate toward those periods in his life, because at least I had a sense of knowing what it's like to be responsible for a group of people, and being in a situation in which they're feeding off of your energy and are looking to you to guide them. . . .

"I guess I felt comfortable in that context. Whereas, in many other areas of Che's life, I just felt like I had no idea."