There’s a reason you should never look to Hollywood for a history lesson. With a few exceptions, actors and directors know as much about history as a Golden Retriever knows about differential calculus. Benicio Del Toro and Steven Soderbergh are not the exceptions.
Hollywood hotshot Benicio Del Toro is not a stand-up comic, but he seemed to be playing one earlier this month when he said he found the role of Cuban Revolution hero Ernesto Guevara, in the new film “Che,” like Jesus Christ.
“Only Jesus would turn the other cheek. Che wouldn’t,” Mr. Del Toro explained. Right. And Bernie Madoff is Mother Teresa, only she wasn’t into fraud.
…
If Mr. Del Toro’s “Christ” comment is foolish, it’s nothing compared to film director Steven Soderbergh’s explanation of why we should care about Che. Bad things happen in society when “you make profit the point of everything,” the movie director told Politico.com. Che’s “dream of a classless society, a society that isn’t built on the profit motive, is still relevant. The arguments still going on are about his methodology.”
Of course, there’s the remote possibility that Del Toro and Soderburgh really do know their history and would rather play off Guevara’s murders as no big deal. In that case, they’re not merely ignorant, they’re just evil and they think we’re all a bunch of idiots who’ll swallow their garbage without question. With Hollywood, it’s really difficult to decide which is the case on any given day.
Tags: Che Guevara, Hollywood, Progressives
