Believe in mankind

Che

(2008)

Easy to see why Steven Soderbergh's 2-part 4 1/2-hour portrait of the revolutionary met with mixed critical response and popular response so unmixed that it barely escaped New York and LA: it's an epic, yes, but an understated epic, a quiet epic. Then too, saints tend not to be interesting, and make no mistake: whether or not you happen to worship at his church, this was a saint. Credit Soderbergh and Benicio del Toro for making uncompromising dedication to a cause human.

Jon Lee Anderson, who wrote a masterful biography of Che a decade or so ago, is listed as "chief consultant," and Soderberg's good-luck charm Matt Damon appears in a single short scene and has maybe two lines.