Region 4 Winners and Losers

     Che: Part Two has been released in Region 1 in the United States as a 3 DVD box set with Che: Part One in the Criterion Collection. The standout feature of this release is the extras, as the video and audio transfers are fairly similar to the Region 4 release by Paramount Pictures. My Region 1 Criterion copy of Che: Part Two takes up 7.22 gb of space on a dual-layered DVD, with an average bitrate of 7.29 m/b per sec. There is a significant difference in the bitrate, therefore, in comparison to the Region 4 release of Che: Part Two. There is no Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack on the Region 1 Release; rather a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is reserved for biographer Jon Lee Anderson's audio commentary.

     Disc 3 of this box set includes a 50 minute Making Che documentary about the making of the film, a 33 minute feature called Che and the Digital Revolution which looks at the digital camera technology, a 26 minute documentary from 1968 by Brian Moser entitled End of a Revolution which looks at Che's failed Bolivian campaign, 20 minutes of deleted scenes, a 35 minute interview sequence entitled Interviews from Cuba conducted by producer Laura Bickford and star Benicio Del Toro in Cuba with actual participants in the revolution and some historians who discuss its long-range effect on Cuba’s history at the time and after the fact, a 20 page booklet which includes an essay by film critic Amy Taubin and a foldout poster of Benicio del Toro as Che Guevara.

     The Region 2 release of Che: Part Two by Optimum Releasing is identical to the Region 4 release, with the same video and audio transfers except that an interview with actor Benicio del Toro that goes for six minutes is included as an extra. The Region 2 release is also available as a 2-disc box set including Che: Part One, whereas the Region 4 releases of Che by Paramount Pictures are currently only available as separate movies.

     The overwhelming quality of extras on the Region 1 Criterion release makes that version the best available on DVD but if you are content with just viewing the film without a plethora of extra features then the Region 4 release of Che: Part Two - Guerrilla is more than suitable.