EXCLUSIVE.. Interview with Omar Sharif on Che!
Capitalism transforms everything into money, including the life of a Revolutionary dedicated to overthrowing capitalism and imperialism. The mass media has already announced the production of...
...His analysis of how revolutions are made, of how guerrilla warfare is fought, which was his specialty, is, however, carefully examined...
...He's incorruptible, has the global insight, and is, in some sense, a victim of his own idealism...
...Q. Does the film show a conflict between Che and Fidel...
...his sentiments, however, are buoyed by an unbounded optimism in the inevitability of achieving victory without violence...
...To go all the way like that, I think, is Just unbelievable...
...He's the sort of man you would rather not have against you...
...In effect, there is a conscious effort to abstract the individual .rom w,,e historical context which shaped his 1s7-avior and to smother the deadly serious issues of U.S...
...OS: The film will not be a put-down of Che...
...exploitation and revolutionary warfare in an episodic romantic myth...
...Zhivago is the other one...
...He achieved nothing, really, except by his death, because he was martyred afterwards...
...Q.: You've been involved in two pictures now which have to do with this question...
...Fidel was a Cuban and was fighting for his own nation...
...So his example becomes another part of all the messages that have come out of all of history up 'til now...
...so only the substance will be missing...
...A real revolutionary has to get rid of all that was before and build everything new...
...The real revolutionary must believe that in order to build the new regime, you have to destroy totally the old...
...He wasn't an aristocrat or anything like that...
...We all tend to be violent people under such conditions...
...OS: Yes, by all means, but we don't mean to get at that in the film...
...OS: Yes, but he is impatient...
...OS: No, this is not the crucial point in the film, because his choice has been made before...
...OS: I really don't know if one should or one shouldn't, whether it's worth it or not...
...OS: I have a great deal of confidence that they will succeed, because they are good ideas and you cannot take good ideas and for long suppress them without their penetrating the society...
...Interestingly enough, Sharif comes out for revolutionary change in this country...
...Being a practical man he knew what he wanted to achieve was not possible, not really...
...Q.: Do you think that the Latin American situation requires armed struggles...
...OS: Yes, there is an interesting point of view there, because Pasternak wrote Zhivago as a doctor, even though it was an autobiographical novel...
...But I don't see any other message...
...But we don't go into long exposes of his actual philosophy, or his analysis of the Latin American situation...
...But, it may be -in the end, because of the futility of it all-a put-down of the idea of stirring up new revolutions, violent revolutions in Latin America...
...I'm starting to read the newspapers now...
...You do have to use your weapons to keep alive, because the others will be chasing you while you are trying to indoctrinate the people...
...Q.: Wont the time ahead be one of increasing conflict in America then...
...And that's a good thing--to be committed to ideals of ustice for the people of the world...
...The young of today understand more about this than any other generation, and so even though they may face a counter-revolution, they will eventually come out on top...
...OS: Not really...
...OS: But he knew all the time what he was doing and what had to be done...
...His mistake in Bolivia was that the people didn't care and he knew it, so he was fighting against his own rules, he was not following his rules which he had set, which were that guerrilla warfare cannot possibly succeed unless you have the people...
...It's worth it if it's going to get someplace, but if it's not going to get someplace, it's not worth it...
...The appearance of reality will be carefully constructed through close attention to authenticity-the right clothes, guns, cigars, terrain, speeches, etc., will all appear on-12the screen in panavision...
...He knew what the price was and even how high the stakes were, and so he wasn't so innocent...
...OS: Yes, I think so...
...We just see what happened to him from the moment he landed in Cuba to the moment he died...
...OS: EBt the American point of view is changing...
...Listen, I want to make this much clear: before doing Chel I was not really interested in politics or national or international problems at all...
...We don't know if it's ever going to happen--his dream--or not...
...EBut it's a philosopher's dream, not the practical man's dream...
...What harm can come to any of them?-14Q.s But as a symbol, though, does this mean that youth are becoming more violent...
...Q.: Well, the reason I ask the question is that I wonder if, in putting together the character, you got into this...
...not because the CIA hunted the uerrilla leader all over the world and endorsed his execution...
...He made his choice straight after the landing, when he had to choose whether to carry the large pack of medical supplies or ammunition, and he chose to take the ammunition and leave behind the medicine...
...That is his philosophy...
...economic system are exonerated from any responsibility...
...It's a very big question which is very difficult to answer because we don't know if it's worth it or not...
...That was his idea...
...This I'm sure of...
...But you can't just sit there and not send the food...
...The revolutionary youth today are really demanding that the Constitution be applied to the letter, that the rights of man be applied to the letter...
...So Zhivago, the poet, approved of the slogans.-15Rat when he actually saw the revolution at work, people suffering and dying, the doctor Ia him came out and disapproved...
...Q.: Then you see Che as almost in a state of innocence...
...Not here...
...That's the whole problem for me, whether one should or should not...
...Interview Q.: Mr...
...Obviously not against violence per se, he seems to oppose revolutionary violence because of its unpredictable effects...
...He sees that the world exists, the human race exists, for a million years, and perhaps it is going to exist for another hundred million...
...He's not, or never really was, a true doctor, because if he were, he could not have fought in the revolution...
...not because most Americans and foreigners are brain-washed by the movie industry which now accumulates fifty percent of its profits from overseas sales...
...Objectivity" means avoiding the nasty, bloody, controversial questions-most of which are rooted in the structure of this society rather than in Che's personality...
...It's practically a nonviolent campaign, really...
...OS: No, they are not...
...You have to destroy the bad structure that was before you and build a new one...
...Well, he was not one of those people...
...There is no telling, as a result of this decade, what the American point of view will be for long...
...The sons of Wall Street are now appearing in new ways before their own fathers...
...I know that Che had enormous admiration for Fidel, because he had been all through the revolution with him, but he became somewhat disenchanted with him...
...But I don't know if it was the right way to fight for it...
...I like what's happening among youth in general...
...Che Guevara was a doctor, too...
...Q.: Do you feel that this idea should be put down...
...There may be specific incidents, but not too much widespread violence...
...Once the revolution succeeded, Fidel was satisfied to work for the Cuban society, but Che must have grown very restless almost immediately...
...OS: No, I really have no knowledge about them...
...OS: EBt this is a young country, you see, and the American revolution is still taking place...
...The choice, which Sharif refuses to make and Che clearly exemplified, is between revolutionary violence and reactionary violence...
...Bit what's the other alternative...
...They are at the moment a very violent lot in Latin America...
...not because the Bolivian military terrorized the peasantry...
...What comes through most clearly in the following interview (recorded in Hollywood in early January) is the overwhelming, almost unreal and maybe put-on naivete of Sharif's answers...
...And when any man gives up all that he's given up and goes to die in some miserable place fighting overwhelming odds, just because he believes in something, he's got to be someone truly important...
...And it's difficult to just talk to people to convince them of anything, to be rational with them...
...Omar Sharif (OS): Well, I think we did better than the script, really...
...You can't compromise if you are a real revolutionary...
...And that's why it doesn't matter how many people have to die now during the construction of the new man...
...Bat it's difficult...
...There are very few really creative people, artists, who are not socialists, or progressives, very few...
...I'm alive to new things, to events, to what's happening everywhere...
...Newsweek's Joseph Morgenstern (12/9/68) explained that Puerto Rico was chosen to shoot the Cuban Revolutionary scenes "because of the island's t Acal Latin American landscapes and atypical amity toward the United States...
...Che failed not because this country had declared total war on revolutions and poured millions into the military destruction of revolutionary movements...
...Much more education is needed for us to get anywhere...
...But not of the man himself...
...Che was from Argentina and had a whole world-wide set of objectives...
...His self-sacrifice for an ideal is a great thing...
...I like very much what the new generation is doing...
...While Fox has enough practical sophistication to choose a safe location, it feigns detached "objectivity" when it comes to the practical revolutionary struggle...
...06: They're fantastic What they stand for is fantastic...
...Q.: Do you think that our country will let the youth proceed without a great deal of conflict, even violence...
...He overlooks the established fact' that governments are usually the first to use violence to suppress legitimate demands, leaving any revolutionary organization little choice in the matter...
...Because Che was incorruptible, uncompromising, beyond political motivation and totally sincere in his commitment to his ideals...
...Che belongs to everyone...
...I think it's a fantastic step...
...It's not very theoretical...
...But if you don't succeed, then you have killed people and you have not done anything...
...That is a kind of message...
...The students will win, because they are right...
...Of course, the revolutionary says that it is not futile...
...Their goals were so different...
...There's too much u:Zcation...
...Che, in a way, has brought me to this point...
...I give you my personal guarantee...
...He wants it all to happen now...
...For Che, then, it was something that had to be done...
...Q.: At what point do we see that...
...I think that it can only spread and enhance his image...
...I think that what the youlh are asking for will eventually prevail without too much violence...
...A real doctor cannot do that...
...The whole of Che Guervara's philosophy about guerrilla warfare is that all fighting has got to be in a friendly environment and that you've got to rally the people around you so that you gain victory not by killing all the soldiers of the opposition, but by just expanding the idea of the revolution among the people...
...Q.: A lot may depend on how the new generation keeps working at these ideas we've been talking about...
...Q.: What do you mean when you say that he might have thought it was the wrong way?-13OS: That it was pointless, useless...
...They are preaching love--that's what it's all about...
...Sharif, what I'd really like to talk about is the way you feel about the character, Che, as you put together the part...
...In true style, he avoids facing the crucial issues while maintaining the appearance of general support...
...I have enormous admiration for the man Che Guevara...
...What comes out of it now is that a lot of young people are carrying his picture, the American revolution maybe...
...I ust see a happening...
...And they don't even know how to begin sending that steak to Biafra...
...OS: I think it requires education--that is what might do it in the long run...
...In an attempt to head off political attacks from the left and rlig~t, the film is being labeled "an obJective character study" concerned more with the hero's personal exploits than his revolutionary ideas...
...As one ournalist noted (John Leonard, The New ork Times Magazine, 12/8/68), "The authenticity of specifies does not add up to a general truth...
...If it's possible to achieve its objectives, yes, but not if it's futile...
...OS: Well, I think that he was a practical man with a great philosophy...
...He succeeded in Cuba and thought he had a slight chance in Bolivia...
...Here's what happened to this man: he lived, he did this and that, he died...
...OS: That is the norm because, you see, he was a real revolutionary...
...That is the subject for discussion, whether one likes Che or not...
...But it was what he believed in and he went ahead...
...I don't think he fancied his chances very much in Bolivia...
...That must have been uncomfortable for Fidel after a time...
...I believe in that, too...
...The film is really an illustration of the facts of his life...
...They only want what they were promised...
...His ultimate goal was really the new man on the whole planet--all the earth, not just in Latin America...
...It's like having to live with your conscience...
...The fact of the man comes out through the facts of his life...
...It's not enormous...
...Is there any doubt that he was murdered to stifle the kind of change that threatens the American way of life, including ridiculous movies that lull people into complacency while producing millions in profits...
...But some people cannot just sit and do nothing about what they believe in...
...And of course, thousands of people can starve while you are waiting for progress and reform...
...But most people do sit there and don't send the food package and then give their steak to their dogs...
...Comeonwelth status has made Puerto Rico safe for Hollywood's revolutionists...
...Then the idea gets widespread among the people, and then the revolution has succeeded automatically...
...Sharif's main point is the questionable utility of violent revolutions...
...Che failed because he made "mistakes...
...Omar Sharif, Twentieth Century Fox, and the U.S...
...You see, the violent aspect of Che's life is not really apparent...
...I don't think that he believed that eventually, in his lifetime, or even in the lifetime of two or three generations after him, he would achieve his ultimate goal...
...There was no other way, and rather than have to sit back and wait, talk, which will not get you anywhere, not in Latin America, well, you .- ~,e to do something triumphant...
...Actually, his choice for revolution was made years before that...
...Q.: From the American point of view, he's not on our side at all...
...Violence usually happens in uneducated places...
...It's not a violent idea, really...
...It's the only way...
...The film doesn't have time...
...It's like when you send a food package--well, you don't know if it gets there, you don't know what it's going to do...
...Bat there is an enormous difference, because the doctor in 2hivago is the person who didn't like the revolution...
...We should be grateful to Twentieth Century-Fox for having the courage to produce a controversial film like this.Z...
...Take the Cuban guerrilla campaign...
...OS: There is no message in the film, I don't think...
...Q." Do you have any opinion about the black youth movements in our country, like the Black Panthers in Oakland, Eldridge Cleaver, and so forth...
...This is Just the infancy of the human race, and even if you destroyed the whole human race, nothing but good could come out of it, because it's lousy as it is now...
...I think that he didn't think it was the right way either...
...It's going to feed some hungry people for maybe a month...
...All the serious students take Che Guevara as a part of their revolution, and all these anti-establishment people are taking part in the American revolution that's going on right now...
...When the first slogans of the revolution came, he approved them--as a poet, because a poet is normally a socialist...
...poor people are dying all the time...
...I had to become that way--to study and to learn-for Guevara...
...I'm just beginning to learn what this means and how it can be achieved...
...OS: Yes, they don't really fall out...
...A glossy commodity packaged in the image of a handsome, sexy hero cannot explain why one Latin American needlessly dies every minute...
...The people who are against him are people who believe he was too violent, that lots of lives were uselessly destroyed, and that may be true...
...You must be on their side, because they are right.Q.: Do you think that the hippies are making a contribution in this...
...He had no pity because his dream, his philosophy, was too great to count ten people, or fifty people, or a hundred people...
...OS: It's very understandable...
...The $6 million motion picture stars mar Sharif in the title role (previous successes include "Lawrence of Arabia" and"Dr...
...Q.: Does it worry you personally to see members f the new generation around the world using Che as a symbol...
...through violence, really, if it's widespread enough...
...He was an un-sentimental person, which is what the revolutionary should be...
...The mass media has already announced the production of Twentieth Century Fox's "Che:," sure to be the year's most "controversial" film, according to the Company's advance publicity...
...Q.: Do you think that Che's analysis of the problem of Yankee imperialism comes through in the film...
...It's just a beginning for me...
...Q.: Well, what message do you hope the film will give to the American public'about Che...
...There is a slight, obvious message, which is the mere fact that Che's life was a failure...
...By contrast, the doctor in Che Guevara is suppressed...
...Q.: Is the film a put-down of Che, then...
...He was one of those people who got all the steaks he could find and wrapped them up and wanted to send them to Biafra...
...Q.: You don't see him as a practical man...
...Great changes are going to happen...
...Q.: Well, what about the fact that Che was responsible for signing thousands of death warrants for enemies of the revolution...
...Because when the people want something, they don't have to go...
...What he fought for...
...Zhivago") and Jack Palance as Fidel Castro (he usually plays a western bad guy...
...I love the hippies...
...And Che must have kept before Fidel his larger laeals...
...They are demanding great standards, freedom for everybody...
...They do dispute the particular issue of the Russian missile crisis...
...Is it early in the war, in an early battle, when he's under Fidel's orders not to fight and in the heat of the battle he picks up a gun and goes ahead and does fight...
...I am that way now...
Vol. 2 • January 1969 • No. 9
