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...
...Their goals were so different...
...We just see what happened to him from the moment he landed in Cuba to the moment he died...
...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...
...That was his idea...
...exploitation and revolutionary warfare in an episodic romantic myth...
...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...
...There may be specific incidents, but not too much widespread violence...
...But you can't just sit there and not send the food...
...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...
...EBut it's a philosopher's dream, not the practical man's dream...
...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...
...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...
...Bat there is an enormous difference, because the doctor in 2hivago is the person who didn't like the revolution...
...so only the substance will be missing...
...Not here...
...But we don't go into long exposes of his actual philosophy, or his analysis of the Latin American situation...
...Q.: Then you see Che as almost in a state of innocence...
...I like very much what the new generation is doing...
...For Che, then, it was something that had to be done...
...It's not very theoretical...
...OS: The film will not be a put-down of Che...
...A glossy commodity packaged in the image of a handsome, sexy hero cannot explain why one Latin American needlessly dies every minute...
...Q.: A lot may depend on how the new generation keeps working at these ideas we've been talking about...
...But it was what he believed in and he went ahead...
...The choice, which Sharif refuses to make and Che clearly exemplified, is between revolutionary violence and reactionary violence...
...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...
...He had no pity because his dream, his philosophy, was too great to count ten people, or fifty people, or a hundred people...
...They do dispute the particular issue of the Russian missile crisis...
...OS: But he knew all the time what he was doing and what had to be done...
...OS: There is no message in the film, I don't think...
...They are demanding great standards, freedom for everybody...
...It's just a beginning for me...
...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...
...Q.: Well, what about the fact that Che was responsible for signing thousands of death warrants for enemies of the revolution...
...OS: Well, I think that he was a practical man with a great philosophy...
...I think that it can only spread and enhance his image...
...OS: EBt this is a young country, you see, and the American revolution is still taking place...
...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...
...And that's a good thing--to be committed to ideals of ustice for the people of the world...
...Q.: Do you think that the Latin American situation requires armed struggles...
...He's the sort of man you would rather not have against you...
...His self-sacrifice for an ideal is a great thing...
...There are very few really creative people, artists, who are not socialists, or progressives, very few...
...The $6 million motion picture stars mar Sharif in the title role (previous successes include "Lawrence of Arabia" and"Dr...
...not because most Americans and foreigners are brain-washed by the movie industry which now accumulates fifty percent of its profits from overseas sales...
...Q.: Do you think that Che's analysis of the problem of Yankee imperialism comes through in the film...
...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...
...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...
...his sentiments, however, are buoyed by an unbounded optimism in the inevitability of achieving victory without violence...
...You must be on their side, because they are right.Q.: Do you think that the hippies are making a contribution in this...
...Che Guevara was a doctor, too...
...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...
...What he fought for...
...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...
...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...
...Interestingly enough, Sharif comes out for revolutionary change in this country...
...OS: It's very understandable...
...He succeeded in Cuba and thought he had a slight chance in Bolivia...
...Great changes are going to happen...
...OS: That is the norm because, you see, he was a real revolutionary...
...A real doctor cannot do that...
...not because the CIA hunted the uerrilla leader all over the world and endorsed his execution...
...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...
...OS: Yes, there is an interesting point of view there, because Pasternak wrote Zhivago as a doctor, even though it was an autobiographical novel...
...Here's what happened to this man: he lived, he did this and that, he died...
...But I don't know if it was the right way to fight for it...
...He was an un-sentimental person, which is what the revolutionary should be...
...In true style, he avoids facing the crucial issues while maintaining the appearance of general support...
...We don't know if it's ever going to happen--his dream--or not...
...That's the whole problem for me, whether one should or should not...
...When the first slogans of the revolution came, he approved them--as a poet, because a poet is normally a socialist...
...You can't compromise if you are a real revolutionary...
...I'm starting to read the newspapers now...
...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...
...There is a slight, obvious message, which is the mere fact that Che's life was a failure...
...poor people are dying all the time...
...The students will win, because they are right...
...Q.: Wont the time ahead be one of increasing conflict in America then...
...Che was from Argentina and had a whole world-wide set of objectives...
...That is the subject for discussion, whether one likes Che or not...
...Sharif, what I'd really like to talk about is the way you feel about the character, Che, as you put together the part...
...I'm alive to new things, to events, to what's happening everywhere...
...Much more education is needed for us to get anywhere...
...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...
...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...
...I have enormous admiration for the man Che Guevara...
...OS: Yes, I think so...
...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...
...I think that he didn't think it was the right way either...
...OS: Yes, they don't really fall out...
...Because Che was incorruptible, uncompromising, beyond political motivation and totally sincere in his commitment to his ideals...
...Of course, the revolutionary says that it is not futile...
...OS: Yes, by all means, but we don't mean to get at that in the film...
...To go all the way like that, I think, is Just unbelievable...
...And they don't even know how to begin sending that steak to Biafra...
...You see, the violent aspect of Che's life is not really apparent...
...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...
...They only want what they were promised...
...So his example becomes another part of all the messages that have come out of all of history up 'til now...
...He's incorruptible, has the global insight, and is, in some sense, a victim of his own idealism...
...Because when the people want something, they don't have to go...
...What comes out of it now is that a lot of young people are carrying his picture, the American revolution maybe...
...He's not, or never really was, a true doctor, because if he were, he could not have fought in the revolution...
...Q.: Is the film a put-down of Che, then...
...It's the only way...
...But if you don't succeed, then you have killed people and you have not done anything...
...But most people do sit there and don't send the food package and then give their steak to their dogs...
...And it's difficult to just talk to people to convince them of anything, to be rational with them...
...The film is really an illustration of the facts of his life...
...The fact of the man comes out through the facts of his life...
...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...
...Obviously not against violence per se, he seems to oppose revolutionary violence because of its unpredictable effects...
...through violence, really, if it's widespread enough...
...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...
...His analysis of how revolutions are made, of how guerrilla warfare is fought, which was his specialty, is, however, carefully examined...
...Once the revolution succeeded, Fidel was satisfied to work for the Cuban society, but Che must have grown very restless almost immediately...
...The sons of Wall Street are now appearing in new ways before their own fathers...
...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...
...Che failed because he made "mistakes...
...Violence usually happens in uneducated places...
...Bit what's the other alternative...
...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...
...The real revolutionary must believe that in order to build the new regime, you have to destroy totally the old...
...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...
...If it's possible to achieve its objectives, yes, but not if it's futile...
...I give you my personal guarantee...
...They are at the moment a very violent lot in Latin America...
...What harm can come to any of them?-14Q.s But as a symbol, though, does this mean that youth are becoming more violent...
...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...
...By contrast, the doctor in Che Guevara is suppressed...
...The film doesn't have time...
...Actually, his choice for revolution was made years before that...
...He wants it all to happen now...
...Interview Q.: Mr...
...It's practically a nonviolent campaign, really...
...There's too much u:Zcation...
...OS: I think it requires education--that is what might do it in the long run...
...His ultimate goal was really the new man on the whole planet--all the earth, not just in Latin America...
...That is a kind of message...
...Q.: Does it worry you personally to see members f the new generation around the world using Che as a symbol...
...There is no telling, as a result of this decade, what the American point of view will be for long...
...Omar Sharif, Twentieth Century Fox, and the U.S...
...It's not enormous...
...He achieved nothing, really, except by his death, because he was martyred afterwards...
...Omar Sharif (OS): Well, I think we did better than the script, really...
...OS: Yes, but he is impatient...
...Che belongs to everyone...
...I ust see a happening...
...I love the hippies...
...OS: No, they are not...
...It's a very big question which is very difficult to answer because we don't know if it's worth it or not...
...It's not a violent idea, really...
...I like what's happening among youth in general...
...But not of the man himself...
...I think that what the youlh are asking for will eventually prevail without too much violence...
...Q.: Well, the reason I ask the question is that I wonder if, in putting together the character, you got into this...
...I had to become that way--to study and to learn-for Guevara...
...I think it's a fantastic step...
...You have to destroy the bad structure that was before you and build a new one...
...Comeonwelth status has made Puerto Rico safe for Hollywood's revolutionists...
...Q.: You don't see him as a practical man...
...not because the Bolivian military terrorized the peasantry...
...OS: I really don't know if one should or one shouldn't, whether it's worth it or not...
...Q.: Do you feel that this idea should be put down...
...Che, in a way, has brought me to this point...
...That is his philosophy...
...We should be grateful to Twentieth Century-Fox for having the courage to produce a controversial film like this.Z...
...Well, he was not one of those people...
...It's like having to live with your conscience...
...Being a practical man he knew what he wanted to achieve was not possible, not really...
...I don't think he fancied his chances very much in Bolivia...
...He wasn't an aristocrat or anything like that...
...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...
...But some people cannot just sit and do nothing about what they believe in...
...Fidel was a Cuban and was fighting for his own nation...
...And Che must have kept before Fidel his larger laeals...
...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...
...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...
...OS: Not really...
...OS: No, I really have no knowledge about them...
...Q.: Do you think that our country will let the youth proceed without a great deal of conflict, even violence...
...While Fox has enough practical sophistication to choose a safe location, it feigns detached "objectivity" when it comes to the practical revolutionary struggle...
...We all tend to be violent people under such conditions...
...Q.: What do you mean when you say that he might have thought it was the wrong way?-13OS: That it was pointless, useless...
...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...
...OS: No, this is not the crucial point in the film, because his choice has been made before...
...OS: EBt the American point of view is changing...
...06: They're fantastic What they stand for is fantastic...
...Q.: You've been involved in two pictures now which have to do with this question...
...Q.: Well, what message do you hope the film will give to the American public'about Che...
...Che failed not because this country had declared total war on revolutions and poured millions into the military destruction of revolutionary movements...
...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...
...A real revolutionary has to get rid of all that was before and build everything new...
...But I don't see any other message...
...He knew what the price was and even how high the stakes were, and so he wasn't so innocent...
...It's going to feed some hungry people for maybe a month...
...This I'm sure of...
...I believe in that, too...
...Zhivago") and Jack Palance as Fidel Castro (he usually plays a western bad guy...
...Bat it's difficult...
...They are preaching love--that's what it's all about...
...I am that way now...
...Zhivago is the other one...
...economic system are exonerated from any responsibility...
...Take the Cuban guerrilla campaign...
...Then the idea gets widespread among the people, and then the revolution has succeeded automatically...
...Q.: At what point do we see that...
...Q.: From the American point of view, he's not on our side at all...
...And that's why it doesn't matter how many people have to die now during the construction of the new man...
...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...
...That must have been uncomfortable for Fidel after a time...
...Q. Does the film show a conflict between Che and Fidel...
...Sharif's main point is the questionable utility of violent revolutions...
...And of course, thousands of people can starve while you are waiting for progress and reform...
...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...
...I'm just beginning to learn what this means and how it can be achieved...
...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...
Vol. 2 • January 1969 • No. 9
