Now on DVD: The Motorcycle Diaries

by Chris Anthony
02/07/2008

Che Guevara is a polarizing figure. For many leftists, Guevara is a cult hero that is idolized across several continents. For others, he is a violent communist who received his due in the midst of the Cold War. But as the narrator of The Motorcycle Diaries tells us, “This isn’t a tale of heroic feats. It’s about two lives running parallel for a while.” Director Walter Salles and executive producer Robert Redford do not focus on Guevara the revolutionary, but rather a young Guevara traversing a continent that has become idealized in his mind. Ernesto “Che” Guevara and close friend Alberto Granado explore South America in search of love, compassion, and adventure, but in the end they find something that changes them profoundly.

The movie begins with medical students “Fuser” Guevara (Gael García Bernal) and “Mial” Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) about to embark on an 8,000 km journey across the South American continent on “The Mighty One,” an ancient Norton motorcycle. However, “The Mighty One” proves to be not so mighty in Chile when it suffers an untimely death, and the two friends complete the journey to Venezuela by hitchhiking and walking.

Along the way, Guevara and Granado experience the social rift in 1950s South America firsthand. Scenes of poverty and injustice are juxtaposed to the highfalutin nature of upper-class society. This culminated in the pair spending three weeks helping at a leper colony in Peru. When departing from Granado in Venezuela, Guevara says, “You know, Mial, all this time we spent on the road, something happened. Something I’ll have to think about for a long time.”

Both García Bernal (Y Tu Mamá También) and Serna are perfect for their roles. García Bernal’s knack for compassionate, heartfelt moments offers a glimpse into the persona of the pre-revolutionary Che. Serna captures Granado’s eccentric character quite well, as he mastered the annoying voice and penchant for four letter words, not to mention his desire to mingle with women across the continent.

Salles’s illustration of the social divide in South America by using the river at the San Pablo leper colony to divide the affluent officials from the patients was masterful. The evolution of Guevara is complete when he swims across the river to the side where the patients lived, an act symbolic of his departure from the realm of the grandiose to the destitution of the lower classes. The cinematography in this scene is splendid, and the same can be said when the pair visit the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru. The black and white images of impoverished South Americans stand in stark contrast to the color images presented in the rest of the film, and this contrast is effective in bringing the social divide to a personal level.

The film is undoubtedly intended for mature audiences who have some semblance of knowledge regarding Che Guevara. The numerous utterances of profanity by both Granado and Guevara, not to mention the many sexual innuendos, would likely be inappropriate for younger viewers. And the fact that the movie is in Spanish with English subtitles may detract some viewers, as well.

The film is devoid of the political assertions that one would expect in a movie of this nature, but it does not detract from the film in the least. The Motorcycle Diaries is not a film about a glorious revolutionary or a cutthroat communist. It is a beautiful film about two friends exploring a vast continent where, according to the narrator, “the further they went the more they could feel the world changing. Or maybe it was them.”