Diarios de motocicleta (Argentina/Chile/Peru/USA/Germany/UK) (Focus Features) (2004) ****Year: 2004iMDB
Director: Walter Salles Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo De la Serna
Motorcycle Diaries is based on the journals written by Ernesto Guevara (Bernal) describing the road-trip that he took together with his best friend Alberto Granado (De la Serna) as he was a 23 years old idealist medical school student. The trip is perhaps the first step that dramatically increased Ernesto's awareness of the social inequities prevalent throughout South America, leading to him becoming the famous Comandante "Che" Guevara.
While the movie does show the two friends maturing as they travel and refining their views of the world, it is first of all a funny, silly at points, road-trip movie showing two friends that take a break from school in order to see the world and have as much fun as they can while they're still young. Towards the end of the movie, there is more foreshadowing of the path that Ernesto will eventually take, and of his strong charisma and of the loyalty that he was able to conjure in the people that saw him literally willing to risk his life and die stupidly only to uphold a certain principle.
Do not be put off by the risk of seing the idealized early life of a communist leader. The movie does not cross the border into propaganda and is one of the better showings of 2004.
Posted by TheCasualCritic on January 7, 2005 04:25 PM | TrackBack