The Motorcycle Diaries
The Motorcycle Diaries- directed by Walter Salles
- "Che Guevara's life tends to be viewed simplistically and this film is no exception but that's no reason not to see it..."
- Amazon.co.uk entry »
Review posted on 22 February 2006 by Alice Curteis, World-wise reviewer
The Motorcycle Diaries is a road movie based on the journals of revolutionary hero Che Guevara.
In the early 1950s he put his medical studies on hold and travelled by motorbike with his friend Alberto Granado through South America from Argentina to Venezuela, a journey which (according to the film) opens his eyes to the impoverishment of the peoples of the continent and which turns him from a pleasure seeking rich boy into a thoughtful and dedicated champion of the poor and marginalised.
Che's life tends to be viewed simplistically and this film is no exception (see his Wikipedia entry to do your homework on the real Che Guevara) but that's no reason not to see it.
The scenes of peasant life are well done, giving a realistic portrayal of the cultural and economic background of his life's work, and the journey itself contains plenty of drama and humour. Great scenery too.
The culminating set-piece of Che (played by Gael Garcia Bernal) swimming across a huge, fast-flowing, predator-infested river in the dead of night is far-fetched but so deeply symbolic as a rite of passage that it has to be excused.