The Michigan Daily - michigandailv~com
Monday, February 2, 2009 - 5A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, February 2, 2009 - 5A
Spray-painting on
the campaign trail
"Step one: Conquer Cuba. Step two: Conquer the T-shirt of every rebellious American 7th-grader."
A muddled
Soderbergh's mammoth
biopic lacks the focus to
reveal the nuances of its
legendary subject
By IMRAN SYED
Daily Arts Writer
Che Guevara is unquestionably one
of the most polarizing figures in human
history, continuing
even today to inspire
masses of both lovers *Ik
and haters.
The guerilla war- Gie
rior at the heart of At the Michigan
the Cuban Revolution, IFC Films
Guevara remains the
most enduring symbol
of the radical left, seen as a selfless libera-
tor by many and as a ruthless mercenary
by just as many others. Director Steven
Soderbergh's sprawling 257-minute trib-
ute to the man is similarly enigmatic,
with a lively first part to draw in audi-
ences and a grueling second part to drive
them away.
Most viewers will see the two parts
separately, but the "Special Roadshow
Edition" playing at the Michigan The-
ater through Friday is a chance to take
in a truly unique experience. For an
elevated ticket price ($12 for students),
viewers can see both parts with a
20-minute intermission and also get a
handy little collector's edition program.
If the thought of over four hours of gue-
rilla action is too daunting, the theater
is permitting viewers to leave at inter-
mission and return on a later day for the
second part.
Part one of the film is about the Cuban
Revolution, with a young Guevara (Bene-
cio del Toro, "Traffic") commanding
guerillas for Fidel Castro's 26th of July
Movement. Interspersed among the gritty
action sequences are cuts forward in time
to Guevara speaking to American report-
ers and to the United Nations on behalf of
Castro's Cuba. What emerges is a rather
complete image of a man convinced of his
I epic
cause and unrelenting in his methods.
Fart two focuses on Guevara's subse-
quent attempt to launch a leftist revolu-
tion in Bolivia. Older and - in the cold
mountain air - more prone to the asthma
attacks that plagued him his whole life,
Guevara is weaker, his efforts errant
and unsuccessful. Del Toro, whose work
earned him the Best Actor award at last
year's Cannes Film Festival, drives both
parts with an intensely focused, brooding
performance.
The film is appropriately dark and
elusive, yet also unfocused and mud-
dled. It embraces Guevara's immortal
persona, one del Toro wears very well.
But ultimately, there's no answer to the
questions of "why this film?" and "why
now?". Most directors who take on
ambitious projects about timeless icons
will have a deeply personal or socially
timely reason for doing so. If Soderbergh
feels such a connection to this work, he
certainly hides it well.
Just as he did with his abrasively naive
approach to "The Good German" three
- See CHE, Page 7A
Ilike graffiti. It's not because of the
allure of running around at ungodly
hours and spraying art all over estab-
lishments and alleyways,
or the danger of being
caught by "The Man"
for the sake of artistic -
creation. I like graffiti
because it's art made by
the people, seen by the
people. You can't get N9NTEY
better free visibility any- PW
where else than on pub-
lic property, because "public property," in
some circles, also means "public visibility."
While the passing of the Ann Arbor anti-
graffiti ordinance might suggest an urge to
repress graffiti art, I think we've begun to
see more of a cultural acceptance of graffiti-
type images in contemporary culture.
Take the Barack Obama "HOPE" poster by
Shepard Fairey, for example. Those bright
patches of solid red and blue and thick,
contrast-heavy lines are reminiscent of
spray-painted graffiti art stencils and silk-
screen prints, a la Andy Warhol's Marilyn
(Monroe) prints.
The iconic image of Obama was original-
ly created by Fairey in an attempt to get the
word out about the then-presidential can-
didate. Fairey is also a graffiti artist and the
person behind the Andr6 the Giant "OBEY"
graffiti posters that had begun poppingup
wheat-pasted to buildings in cities like New
York and Chicago.
Fairey mentioned in his interview with
Stephen Colbert on "The Colbert Report"
that, instead of resorting to illegal distribu-
lion tactics forhis Obama image, he wanted
to get the word out legitimately - he decid-
ed to wait for the support of the Obama
campaign administration. Once permission
was granted, his "HOPE" became the unof-
ficial image of the Obama campaign.
This legitimizing of graffiti art is intrigu-
ing because graffiti has classically been
labeled as illegal and somewhat of a nui-
sance to property owners. It's easy to get
mired down in all the political and prop-
erty-based arguments against graffiti, but
it's equally importantto look at graffiti art's
visibility and how Fairey's stencil graffiti-
style "HOPE" became so widespread and
iconic. I think it has a lot to do with two
elements - the image's stylization and its
extensive distribution.
Fairey's Obama stencil image manages
to find a middle ground between the pho-
torealistic and the abstract. Certain details
are made more prominent, like the detailed,
contemplative eyes that look off the plane
of the poster, and the mouth that's drawn
in a way that not only makes the face more
recognizable, but gives the image a more
regal, self-assured look. And certain details
are removed, like skin textures and hair
textures that may serve to smooth over indi-
vidualistic details, moving the image from
the realm of "individual portrait" to that of
"recognizable icon."
We've seen this in Warhol's Marilyn.
The lack of detail in the image, in conjunc-
tion with its recognizable quality, makes
the image pop out and become something
visible over a longer distance. It's simi-
lar, in a way, to logo branding. When you
simplify a restaurant chain's name into
two golden arches, you make an "M" that
people equate with "loving it," Big Macs
and fries.
Similarly, when you boil down a person's
image to its simplest parts, you create a
symbol. Marilyn Monroe's image became
a symbol for glamour and fame in the'60s.
Obama's image is equated with "HOPE"
or "CHANGE," as these are ideas his cam-
paign tried to introduce into the mass con-
sciousness.
But don't forget the visibility of the
image. The mass-produced quality of War-
hol's Marilyn prints is important to the
artwork as well. One of his pieces features
ten silkscreen prints of Monroe's face set
next to one another; each image is produced
using different colors for the lips, eyes, skin
and mouth. The repetition of the image,
The Obama
campaign left a
lasting mark on the
world of public art.
and the use of the image of a famous figure,
seem to recreate what happens when an
image is placed everywhere for the public to
see: It becomes immediately recognizable
by large groups of people.
Similarly, Obama's face has had incred-
ible visibility as a symbol and logo. The
red and blue"O"logo is more than just an
"O;" it represents the beliefs and slogans
-of the entire Obama campaign. The idea
of mass-visibility has also changed a great
deal since society placed more importance
on the internet as an information highway.
Fairey's poster was initially released online
for the public to use and distribute, and it
immediately went viral, spreading between
users through e-mail, forums and online
communities.
It's interesting to see the spread of image
visibility occurring primarily within a vir-
tual space. The internet was the starting
point that spawned stickers, T-shirt and
See POW, Page 7A
p
'0.. @0e
0@ 0
Everything Begins with an IDEA ...
And several U-M graduate students
recently won $10,000 for their "winning
ideas" related to environmental
sustainability.
It was all part of the Dow Sustainability
Innovation Student Challenge managed
by the Graham Institute.
Hats off to these award-winning students who
have proven that sustainability
really does pay.
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