Benicio “Che” Del Toro Hates Being Railroaded By The Washington Times – Is That Surprising?

The headline for this Washington Times article (“Del Toro Walks out On ‘Che’ Interview”) is misleading at best.  Personally, I don’t really care for Benicio del Toro – I don’t hate him either – but after reading the article, I felt like I should write about this to point out that Sonny Bunch of the Washington Times is a sneaky bastard.

As a technical writer and instructional designer, I spend my working days creating resources that help people accomplish certain tasks, usually as part of their job.  Just because I am very go0d at writing documentation on accomplishing a particular task – say, making homemade explosives – doesn’t mean that I agree with it.  By that same token, Mr. Del Toro’s portrayal of Ernesto Guevara (which was right on, I hear) doesn’t make him a spokesperson for Che’s ideals.  Why weren’t those same questions asked to someone who had some editorial input on the film – Mr. Soderbergh perhaps?  The point is, these guys were just trying to make a movie.  The goal of a movie is to make lots of money, get its crew paid, and win lots of awards, so it appears that Mr. Soderbergh and Mr. Del Toro have been doing their jobs exceptionally well.

I’m sure when the interview was set up, the expectation was that it would be about the movie, rather than Ernesto Guevara’s historical legacy.  Railroading someone who just came in to talk about their work by making them respond in detail to comments on a historical figure’s unsavory-ness is just bad journalism for the sake of a juicy headline.

According to Sonny,

Mr. Valladares is afraid that Mr. del Toro and Mr. Soderbergh’s film will make people forget the reality that was Che Guevara’s life.

Mr. Bunch y Sr. Valladares, in case you missed the memo, Ernesto Guevara has already been turned into a countercultural hero of sorts.  Just spend a day walking around any major U.S. city while counting the number of hipster kids running around wearing red Che shirts.  There are people in this world that just do things without understanding the reasons why.  Both of you will need to accept that and stop trying to blame the American public’s general historical ignorance on a Puerto Rican actor who just played the guy in a movie.

Y me imagino que esa es la ultima entrevista de Benicio con el Washington Times, porque supuestamente a el no le importa un bledo.  He dicho.