You might want to whip out your old "Che!" or "Che Lives!" T-shirt before settling down to watch this stellar film. You'll feel hip and righteous, though it might prove sobering when you realize that Che Guevara would most likely have preferred to shoot you than sit down beside you in front of your big screen television. We fat capitalist pigs are as entitled to watch this film as anyone else, though, because this film is virtually pan-American. In making this film, Brazilian director Walter Salles teamed with U.S. producer Robert Redford, Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, Argentinean actor Rodrigo De la Serna, and a scriptwriter from Puerto Rico. The filming took place in Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

Historical Background – Director: Walter Salles Jr. has gained international recognition while rising to the top of Brazilian cinema. His magnificent film Central Station (1998) received the Best Foreign Film award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. I've listed it as number six on my list of the best foreign films (see Non-English Language Films that pack a wallop.) Also highly respected among Salles's films is Behind the Sun (2001). Salles was born April 12th, 1956, in Rio de Janeiro, son of a wealthy banker. He was raised in France and the United States before returning to Brazil permanently in his teen years.

Salles's first filmmaking efforts were documentaries. After his debut fiction film, Exposure (1991), he had to wait four years before finding funding for another, because the Brazilian economy was in near collapse. At least Salles got to use the issue of the fallout from Brazil's economic problems in his film, Foreign Land (1996), an international mystery set in Brazil and Portugal, which he co-directed with Daniela Thomas. Next came his masterpiece, Central Station (1998), for which Fernanda Montenegro won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Salles then teamed up again with Thomas for Midnight (1998). Stylistically, Salles works in the tradition of the humanist poets and realists, such as Renoir, Rossellini, and De Sica.

Historical Background – Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-1967): The man now immortalized as "Che" Guevara was born Ernesto Rafael Guevara on June 14th, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. His parents were part of the privileged upper middle class, although the family had its ups and downs. His father was a construction engineer and operated other business ventures that sometimes failed. Guevara was home-schooled by his mother and read the works of Marx and Freud in his father's library. His parents were left leaning, though not especially politically active. At age twenty, Guevara enrolled in the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine, motivated in part by his own asthmatic condition.

The road trip depicted in The Motorcycle Diaries was not Guevara's first such excursion. At age twenty-one, he toured the indigenous villages in Northern Argentina, traveling solo on his moped, covering 4000 miles. Two years later, in 1951, he took the 7500-mile trip with Alberto Granado that lasted eight months and reached five countries. These trips shaped Guevara's political philosophy, as he observed the incessant poverty and exploitation of the indigenous peoples and the role of the United States in propping up repressive dictatorships.

In 1952, Guevara participated in the demonstrations against Juan Perón in Argentina. Then he traveled to Bolivia and worked again in a leper colony and met with political activists. In 1953, he hitchhiked to Guatemala and arrived just in time to witness the overthrow of the leftist government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán by a group sponsored and led by the CIA. While in Guatemala, Guevara met his first wife, Hilda Gadea, as well as Nico Lopez, an associate of Fidel Castro. Guevara fled to Mexico in September of 1954, where he met Fidel Castro and his brother Raül, who were in exile from Cuba but already planning their revolution against Fulgencio Batista's regime. Guevara immediately joined the plot.

The planning continued for two years, until, in November of 1956, Castro, Guevara, and just eighty trained guerillas landed in Cuba. Only twelve of those eighty were to survive, but Castro recruited replacements from among the Cuban peasantry, while seizing weapons. Guevara was nominally the unit's doctor, but preferred soldiering and quickly gained rank and stature. In July of 1957, he was made Rebel Army Commander. Sixteen months later, in December 1958, his forces won the decisive battle at Santa Clara. Batista was forced to flee and Castro's troops took the capital city of Havana on January 2nd, 1959.

In the new government, Guevara became Castro's right-hand man. Guevara organized the National Institute of Agrarian Reform, became president of the National Bank of Cuba, and the Minister of Industries. During this time, he also divorced his first wife and married a fellow soldier, Peruvian-born Aleida March. They had four children. Guevara signed a trade agreement with the Soviet Union in February of 1960 and toured other socialist countries in Asia and Africa, established additional trade links.

During the next five years, Guevara's views began to move away from those of Castro. Guevara preferred the Mao Tse-Tung version of communism being practiced in China and published his views in Man and Socialism in Cuba (1965). Guevara was intent on spreading revolution to the rest of Central and South America, while Castro was focused on refining communism within Cuba. These differences in views and priorities led to Guevara's ouster from his government positions in 1965.

Guevara left Cuba in April of 1965 for the Congo, where he engaged in training Congolese rebels fighting for Laurent Kabila, who had hopes of ousting the dictator Mobotu, who seized power after the assassination of Patrice Lomumbu (see Lumumba). Guevara recruited 120 Cuban soldiers to help with the effort, but they were still no match for Mobotu's army, which had the backing of U.S. Army Special Forces. Guevara returned to Cuba in 1966. Guevara then disappeared from public view for about a year. (Kabila finally toppled Mobotu in 1997, more than thirty years later.)

When Guevara reemerged, it was in Bolivia, where he began recruiting and training soldiers for the communist insurgents, but his brand of communism was again too radical for his associates and he received little cooperation. The Bolivian president, Rene Barriétos caught wind of Guevara's presence in the country and sent an army unit, with CIA backing, into the jungle to flush Guevara out. In October, 1967, Guevara was wounded and captured and executed the following day.

Jean-Paul Sartre hailed Guevara as "the most complete human being of our age." Guevara's heart was certainly with the exploited underclass of society, as evidenced by his statement, "I would rather be an illiterate Indian than a North American millionaire." He devoted himself to revolutionary efforts designed to improve the lots of such people and for that reason became an icon of rebellious leftists throughout the world. On the other hand, his efforts in the Congo and Bolivia failed miserably and the result in Cuba was not particularly consistent with his personal vision. Roger Ebert claims the "Cuba has turned out more or less as he would have wanted it to," but that ignores the fact that Guevara was ousted from his leadership roles in Cuba precisely because his vision was in conflict with that of Castro.

There was plenty of justice in Guevara's cause, but his place in history must be determined, in the end, by one's view of violence as a mechanism for change. Guevara celebrated hatred as the basis for revolution. "You've got to deny [your enemy] even a moment's peace," he wrote, "make them feel like a wild animal, hounded wherever it goes." Guevara was also intolerant of alternative viewpoints. Except for his victory at Santa Clara, the violence that Guevara fomented led only to death, for his followers and his enemies. One wonders whether he might not have accomplished more as a doctor in the leper colonies. Part of Guevara's continuing appeal lies no deeper than his James Dean style charisma.

The Story: In the winter of 1951, a 29-year-old chemist, Alberto Granado (Rodrigo De la Serna), is determined to fulfill a promise he made to himself to explore South America by motorcycle before he turns thirty. He has invited the young Ernesto Guevara (Gael García Bernal), a medical student, to share the journey with him. They have a beat-up old 1939 Norton 500 motorcycle that they optimistically dub "The Mighty One." Guevara, who goes by the nickname "Fuser," is asthmatic and pampered, as his farewells to his parents and siblings make evident. Alberto, by contrast, is a bit plump, good-natured, and something of a lecherous seducer. The pair's main intent is to tour the spine of the Andes, but at the end of the journey they will spend a few weeks working in a leper colony of Peru. The journey will cover 7500 miles and eight months time.

The first stop is the home of Fuser's girlfriend, Chichina (Mia Maestro). Her parents are upper class. Fuser remarks, as they arrive, that the property looks like something out of Switzerland. Chichina is crazy about Ernesto, though not enough to open her jewel box for him. Her parents very much disapprove of the young man. Alberto occupies himself with trying to seduce the family's maid during a dance party. It is all Ernesto can do to bid Chichina farewell after their six-day sojourn. He leaves her with a German Shepard puppy, while she gives him fifteen American dollars to buy her a bathing suit, in case he reaches the United States.

The early part of the trip is marred by spills, mechanical problems with their cycle, and some squabbles between the traveling companions, some centering on Alberto's ideas for ways to spend Chichina's fifteen American dollars. The pair proves rather inept at roughing it and frequently has to beg lodging from the locals. There is so little medical care in the Andes that Ernesto is frequently called upon to examine the ill, even though he has yet to complete his training. His bedside manner leaves much to be desired, however, as he rather callously informs a man that he has a tumor. On another occasion, he leaves some pills for an old woman who is dying. Ernesto has his own medical problems to cope with as well. He suffers chills and asthmatic attacks after plunging into a lake to retrieve a duck shot by Alberto.

The travelers soon run out of cash and, when their motorcycle needs more repairs, the young men entice a mechanic in a rural village into doing the work for free. Ernesto manages that feat by stopping by the local newspaper office, telling their story, and becoming instant celebrities in the town. Celebrity status only goes so far, however. After Ernesto flirts with the mechanics wife, he and Alberto have to hightail it out of town to avoid getting beat up by the locals.

After colliding their cycle into a cow, Ernesto and Alberto hitch a ride into the next town. There they make time with a couple of local girls but discover that "The Mighty One" has gone its last mile. While staying in the town, Ernesto gets a disheartening letter from Chichina, who presumably has decided not to wait "forever," as he had hoped. The young men are now reduced to walking and hitchhiking, but this serves to increase their contact with the local people. They repeatedly encounter examples of oppression and exploitation. One man is out of his job merely for being a communist. Another farmer was ousted from his tenant farm by a greedy landowner. They also encounter desperate workers being abused by a sadistic foreman.

They arrive in Lima broke and hungry, but are soon rallied back to life by the generosity of Dr. Bresciani (Jorge Chiarella). They work for a while in his hospital before hopping a barge that will take them to the leper colony. Bresciani asks his young charges to read the novel he is writing and later asks for comments. Alberto, ever the opportunistic liar, offers some inane but supportive comments while Ernesto, who is obsessively honest, suggests to Bresciani that he not give up his day job. On the barge, Ernesto has another asthmatic attack and, later, is distressed by more evidences of poverty that he sees on the passing boats that cater to the poor. Alberto meets a gorgeous prostitute, Luz (Jakelyne Vasquez), but cannot afford her services. He has some good luck at the blackjack table, however, and knows exactly how to spend his winnings thereafter.

At the leper colony, Ernesto and Alberto dig right in to help out. Ernesto treats several of the lepers, including a young, despondent girl named Silvia (Antonella Costa). They refuse to obey the rules established by the nuns, which require that they wear gloves while working with the lepers, even though leprosy is non-contagious when under treatment. Ernesto detests the stigmatization of the lepers, who are made to live in isolation on the opposite side of the river from the staff. On their last evening, Ernesto gives open expression to his disgust by swimming across the river to stay with the lepers for the night.

Themes: As much as any character, the real protagonist of this film is South America. Its beauty is searing and enigmatic. And talk about character development over the course of a film! The landscapes of South America observed over the course of the trek are ever-changing and dictate, to an extent, the changing moods and ideas of Ernesto and Alberto. Against the lush panorama of South America's scenic vistas are juxtaposed the oppressed and starving indigenous people. The real story of the film is the contrast between the bounty of nature and the penurious quality of the human society of the South American continent. The contrast between the upper class lifestyle of Chichina's family and the poor people of the Andes couldn't be more striking. This is what we see and it is what Guevara saw as well. Salles, by his approach to this film, proves himself as dedicated to the people of South America as was Guevara.

When the road trip began, Ernesto Guevara was a young man headed toward a plush and privileged life as an affluent physician. He hadn't set out expecting a life-altering odyssey. He and Alberto were just two young men seeking adventure, with a primary interest in wooing young women and getting laid, at least once, in every country in South America. Gradually, however, one of the young men, Ernesto, begins to reinvent himself as a revolutionary. How does an affluent and introverted young man get transformed into a violent revolutionary?

Ernesto was not himself a victim of oppression but he was a keen observer of injustice and honest to a fault. What he observed, he could neither deny nor ignore. His exposure to the reality of the suffering of the poor people of Chile, Argentina, and Peru triggered a spiritual upheaval, gradually refining his youthful idealism into a commitment to radical action. "I think of things in different ways," he says, something has changed in me." Guevara slowly loses his innocence. After the demise of the Norton 500, we see Ernesto emerging from out of the shadow of the older Alberto, taking the lead as they forge ahead on foot. He matures before our eyes and grows "closer to this strange human race" that he observes suffering. He suddenly realizes that the nouveau riche families, from which he and his girlfriend hail, got rich by the exploitation of the native populations.

Guevara's transformation reaches its climax during his experience at the leper colony. He connects, emotionally, with the lepers and deplores their segregation from the staff, on opposite sides of the Amazon. Symbolically, this separation, not required by medical considerations, symbolizes for Guevara the chasm between the social classes in South America and it awakens his egalitarian impulses. After proclaiming his wish for the unification of all of the indigenous people of the continent, Guevara wades into the river and undertakes a desperate swim across the river, gasping for breath but finally reaching the cheering crowd of lepers. He'll spend his final night there with the lepers, thus symbolically throwing in his lot with the underclass. He has been forever changed by his contact with the dispossessed.

The Motorcycle Diaries is not a bioptic about Guevara nor is it a conventional road film. The primary journey is a journey of the mind, a journey of maturation. Life is full of turning points, but most especially during the formative years of adolescence and young adulthood. Guevara concludes his journal with the thought, "I'll leave you now, with myself, the man I used to be." We see the formation of Guevara's idealism, but Salles also hints at what some might consider Guevara's limitations. One night during the trek, Ernesto and Alberto stop at the home of a man who asks Ernesto to examine a growth on his neck. It is a tumor and Ernesto, in his usual bluntly honest manner, tells the man as much. He wants desperately to help the man, but doesn't know how to do so. Guevara wanted desperately to help the poor and exploited people of Central and South America, but was mostly unable to do so.

We in North American, taken collectively, have done even less well by the victimized people to our south. We live better because of the exploitation of these people, ensuring ourselves a plentiful supply of cheap coffee and bananas, for example, and purchasing the products of their sweatshops. It's not merely that we ignore the conditions under which these people live. Our government takes an active role in propping up the dictatorships that allow the exploitation to persist and in crushing any socialist or communist movements that offer the people hope.

Production Values: The script for this film was based on the journals written during the trip by Guevara, discovered in his knapsack after his death, and Granado's book (with Jose Rivera), Traveling with Che Guevara. There're some nice comedic touches, every now and then. Salles also does a nice job avoiding a stereotype relating to Latin men by making Ernesto a very poor dancer. Some of the scenes were improvised between the two lead actors and local people met along the film crew's journey. The most important decision made by Salles in filming this subject matter was how much relationship to draw between this youthful road trip and the later life of Guevara as a famous but controversial revolutionary. Salles struck the perfect balance. On the one hand, he has avoided cheap politicizing of the material, inflammatory rhetoric, or too many explicit allusions to Guevara's future life. On the other hand, it would be ridiculous to pretend that this story would be film-worthy if it did not include the future Che Guevara. Salles includes just enough links to Guevara's later life to establish the film's main thesis: how youthful experiences are formative of who we become. This is not simply a story about a young man who happened to become famous later. It is a story about why and how that young man later became famous and revolutionary. We learn, among other things, how Guevara acquired the nickname "Che." It is an Argentinean expression, which Guevara was fond of using, approximately equivalent to "dude" or "buddy."

The highlight of the cinematography is the gorgeous scenery as the young men are nestled in the Andes countryside. There's a beautiful shot, for example, of the Macchu Picchu ruins. Cinematographer Eric Gautier sometimes gives his scenic shots a hazy look to underscore the nostalgic element. This film represents the extreme in on-location shooting because Salles actually took his crew along the exact route that had been taken by Guevara and Granado, not once, but three times. Mostly, the camerawork is pretty basic, consisting of handheld shots and some steadicam. The editing is fast-paced, for the most part. One very effective technique uses occasional black-and-white shots in which a group of indigenous people or peasants stand very still, giving almost the appearance of a photograph. The inference is that these images of poverty are burned into the memory of Guevara and contribute to who he becomes. The musical score by Gustavo Santaolalla is varied but consistently appropriate. He plays most of the musical instruments himself.

The performances by both Bernal and Rodrigo De la Serna are very strong. Bernal is the more charismatic, of course, but De la Serna provides a great foil and some comedic balance, especially in the early scenes. The chemistry between the two is very good. Bernal is a handsome young man with somewhat equine features and has become something of a heartthrob internationally. His performance here ranks among his very best, although he has had previous good turns in Amores Perros, Y Tu Mamá También, and Bad Education (See Stephen Murray's Review). Bernal is well on his way to major international stardom.

Bottom-Line: There is a movie in the works about Che Guevara's life as a revolutionary, with the working title of Che . Steven Soderbergh will be directing it and Benicio del Toro will be playing the part of Guevara.

The Universal DVD for The Motorcycle Diaries is widescreen, with Spanish audio and English subtitles, as well as captions for the hearing impaired. The running time is 126 minutes. There's a short interview with Alberto Granado and another with Gael García Bernal, as well as a making of the movie featurette. This is not a perfect film (though it won the 2004 British Academy Award for Best Foreign Film), but it is darn close to a perfect job of directing. The film's only weakness is limited dramatic punch, which is inherent in the fact that it’s a rather ordinary kind of story. What Salles does is get every bit of potential value out of the concept that is there to be extracted. He gives us a rich insight into the nature of formative experiences.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Brazil:

Behind the Sun
Black Orpheus
Central Station
City of God
Pixote
Quilombo.
Xica

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age