Motorcycle_Daries

Just like most of teenagers in my age, I never knew who Che Guevara is. I knew nothing about his life. His face is ubiquitous thanks mostly to the T-shirts made in Third World sweatshops by multinational corporations – the very embodiment of evil Che Guevara tried to fight. There are, however, better ways to pay homage to this great and controversial historical icon, and one of them is THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, 2004 biographical drama directed by Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles. The film deals with the event that preceded Che's revolutionary career. It starts in 1952 Buenos Aires where Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara (played by Gael Garcia Bernal), when he was a only normal 23-year old medical students a semester short of graduation decides to spend few months travelling across South America with his best friend, 29-year old biochemist Alberto Granado (played by Rodrigo De la Serna). They start with an old motorcycle they would have to ditch and continue on foot. Their path leads them through Argentina, Chile and, ultimately Peru. This is the ending of an old life, and also a start of a legend. Just like what in his daries said “Wandering around our America has changed me more than I thought. I am not me any more. At least I'm not the same me I was.” Along the way they experience all kinds of adventures, we see the imperfect side of young Guevara, fooling local girls with their made up stories and getting into trouble at the expense of their overactive, but continually starved, sex drive diminishes into a darker world of social injustice and inequality that resonates profoundly. But then these are all the elements make him success. He is becoming less thrilled with the adventure and more affected with the poverty, injustice and oppression he had witnessed in various countries. Two of them finally come to volunteer as physicians in leper colony where Guevara's idealism and political ideas start to take shape and became “the most perfect person in our time”. Anyone who wants to become a hero, must have experienced an abnormal life experience. In the peaceful Buenos Aires, he could become an excellent doctor; just a journey changed all his routine. But not all the people have the chance like he does. Especially he left the one he loved, although he knew that he might lost her forever. The dies is cast, the tie is risen.   Walter Salles has succeeded in producing a faithful and accessible tale that genuinely moves. The Motorcycle Diaries is deliberately pious in handling the Che Guevara myth, and the narrative is shot through with self-righteousness, but Salles manages to open up the gentle humour and innocence of the book to keep any on screen canonization of “El Che” firmly in check. Guevara’s journey towards immortality is plotted out neatly, with every subsequent adventure serving to establish and exaggerate the young man’s growing social conscience. Episodic scenes, some charming some moving, slot together to form a tight plot that conveys character with a good deal of enjoyment . Gael Garcia Bernal (A Mexican last seen in Almodovar’s Bad Education) generates a rangy performance in the lead, blending choirboy looks with an intensity that burns. He manages to embody the spirit of a man on the verge of a great change with ease. Thankfully his moral depth (always in danger of getting boring) is beautifully complemented by Rodrigo De La Serna in the role of his lecherous travelling buddy Alberto, who never fails to muddy the waters with a comic moment or two.   Walter Salles has said that the film is about Ernesto Guevara before he became the legendary revolutionary hero ‘El Che’. The political awakening of both Ernesto and Alberto is delicately done. There is no defining moment, just a cumulative effect, an organic process; the social and political reality of Latin America – the beauty of the landscape contrasted with the poverty of the people - takes over little by little, in such a way that, by the end, you realise that they have been transformed by their journey. It’s also very funny. The Motorcycle Diaries made me want to give up my job, travel round South America, become a revolutionary, get shot by the CIA, and shag Gael Garcia Bernal. Not necessarily in that order… Who could ask for anything more' The Motorcycles Diaries works because, like any traveller, it never lingers in one place too long. It visits the road movie, the buddy movie, the character study and the political drama but never gets stuck in one place, thus maintaining its equilibrium. Salles effectively plants the seeds of Guevara’s struggle, stating his case personally in the process, without allowing the film to wallow. The film feels light and uncomplicated to the last, remaining true to the naive spirit of adventure that inspired the journey, whilst illustrating, with great craft and compassion, how many miles, mountains and life-altering experiences it takes for a man to truly grow.