Review
The Motorcycle Diaries
- Director
- Walter Salles
- Year
- 2004
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
- Review date
- Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Diarios de Motocicleta offers a beautiful cinematographic interpretation of Ernesto Guevara’s idealism as presented in his own diaries kept during a trip he made when he was 23. Scripted by José Rivera, based also on a further book narrating the same experiences, by Guevara’s friend Alberto Granado, the film is solely about the famous trip, with all its turns and circumstances that made it so crucial to the life of the now historical icon. Surprisingly, Ernesto Guevara (Gael García Bernal) wasn’t into politics but into medicine, before that trip, proposed by Granado (Rodrigo De la Serna) as a celebration of his thirtieth birthday. The idea was to hop on Granado’s old motorcycle and travel across South America. They do so, with little money and lots of expectations, but end up living a completely different set of experiences than they thought they would.
It’s nothing more than an ordinary trip, one could say. Like the introduction states (borrowed from Guevara’s diaries), this is not a tale of extraordinary events. Or is it? From town to town, from experience to experience, the people, the poverty, and the injustice, become elements of a change of conscience for Guevara. Little by little, the careless youth becomes an activist, without his own understanding or planning. He’s soon into causes he never even thought of before, and he doesn’t even think about it twice. Once he stops to think about it however, he realizes he’s a different man… for good.
The film is full of priceless vignettes that are either poignant or hilarious, or both. This is the kind of movie that’s both pleasant and tragic to watch. Guevara and Granado are a fascinating couple, and their sense of humor makes their experience extremely funny. Guevara’s fight with asthma and his compassionate way of caring for the poor and the sick are heartbreaking. And some people’s poverty, and the history of some places in Latin America, are certainly tragic themes. The movie is never excruciating though. It’s a pleasure from beginning to end, to the extent that you don’t want it to be over, and you keep it with you for a long time after it is.
What became of Guevara’s idealism is not a matter discussed or even thought about in this movie. That’s for history books and anyone’s appreciation, not for this movie’s running time. You can think of Ché Guevara as a hero or a villain, but his ideas, developed during the story this film has to tell, are hardly a matter of appreciation. They’re clear, straightforward, idealist, and honest, so I don’t think anyone can actually hate this movie. In fact, if someone didn’t even know Ernesto Guevara became Ché Guevara, they wouldn’t necessarily have a reason to think so during the film. That’s how unpretentious it is.
Director Salles, of Central Station fame, delivers his tale with care and sensibility. He knows how to transmit young Guevara’s appreciation of things, and does so in a way that’s both subtle and in-your-face: He shows the people Guevara looks at, as if they were trapped in pictures, unavoidably pinned into our minds, as if asking for help. These moments are unforgettable indeed, and very beautiful as well. The people in said scenes, and throughout the movie, are obviously real townspeople, whose honest portrayal of themselves is outstanding, and gives the film a documentary feeling that’s never boring or unpleasant. The two stars, in outstanding performances, lead the way to perfection, but the people around them are what is (and should be) absolutely unforgettable.
A subtle score by Gustavo Santaolalla, and the beautiful photography by Eric Gautier, are among the many assets the movie possesses. All in all, it’s a must-see.
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Other reviews of The Motorcycle Diaries (2004): Morris
Comments
Groucho wrote at 12/1/2004 10:18:20 AM:
I understand you perfectly, my friend. Morris wrote at 12/1/2004 10:10:27 PM:
Those are very interesting and sensitive commments. I understand what you say. And yes, perhaps you can't see this movie objectively. Ernesto is given a sympathetic portrait, but then again, he must've been like that before he became what he became. Still, a great movie...
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Review
The Motorcycle Diaries
- Director
- Walter Salles
- Year
- 2004
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- Review date
- Tuesday, October 19, 2004
In 1952 Buenos Aires, a medicine student, Ernesto Guevara (Gael García Bernal), and his best friend (Rodrigo de la Serna), decide to embark on a road trip in an old motorcycle that would take them all across South America, stretching more than 10,000 miles. At first the trip is all fun and adventure, but it suddenly starts to turn into something much more serious than they could have imagined.
The Motorcycle Diaries is based on a true story. The story, and dialogue, were taken directly from Ernesto’s own words. Words that he wrote in a diary during his trip. That gives the movie a sense of reality that is difficult to find in movies nowadays. It ain’t a documentary, but it certainly works as a lush and beautiful travelogue if you only want to see it that way. And Eric Gautier’s grandiose cinematography certainly doesn’t hurt.
Yet this movie is much more than meets the eye. It is the coming-of-age story of a man who wasn’t really aware of how the world worked. He had been living in a shell, and that’s why he wanted to see it all by himself. It is his political awakening, but done in such a form that it doesn’t feel forced or unnatural. After all it is something we can all identify with: the moment in which we all realize the world is not such a dreamy and wonderful place.
Ernesto is not pessimistic. Not even after he changes so much. He craves for the joy of living, for the right to be free and equal. He is a fascinating man who says whatever is in his mind. And the same goes for his friend Alberto. They both go through a lot during the impressive trip they take, yet there’s always one thing in their minds: to keep going. And there’s always that lighthearted moment, that time where they can both laugh, for life is to be savored no matter what. And we all have the right to do that.
Director Walter Salles opted to shoot the entire movie on location. That meant following exactly the same route as Ernesto and Rodrigo did. And it’s mind-blowing. I was impressed by the period detail, the beautiful score by Gustavo Santaolalla and especially by the performances in the movie. And I’m not talking about the leads, which I’ll mention later, but about every single supporting character or extra in the movie. There’s such a natural vibe to all of their work. You can see they’re real people, it’s in their eyes, in their faces, in their hands. Salles uses an interesting device to show the way in which these people lived by having them stare at the camera in their natural environments. They’re just beautiful and poignant vignettes.
Delivering once again a stellar and impressive performance is Gael García Bernal, who sports a perfect Argentinean accent and embodies Ernesto in a way that the transformation he experiences flows naturally. He’s good at every turn. And so is Rodrigo de la Serna, wonderfully charismatic and the perfect counterpart to Ernesto’s more somber mood. Both actors have chemistry and talent to spare. And it is just wonderful to spend time with them. I didn’t want the movie to end at all, and that’s saying something.
Kudos should go to Salles for tackling such a difficult subject and coming off so well. I was captivated, enthralled and totally absorbed by his brilliant movie.
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Other reviews of The Motorcycle Diaries (2004): Groucho
Comments
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Mithrandir wrote at 12/1/2004 5:52:57 AM:
I probably know a lot about Ernesto Che Guevara de la Serna. I was born in Cuba and fed his idealism all the way until I came to this country, where I learned the raw truth about this man I believed to be a hero.I have not seen "The Motorcycle Diaries", and frankly, I don't know if I will. Even if we are looking at a young Guevara who is still thinking about what to do with his life, I think my mindset about him wouldn't let me see the film with an objective mind. I have read Che's diary, so I probably know what is going to happen in the movie if the director kept by it.
Though this man is widely considered a hero and an icon, the subtle truth about his life goes so much deeper than that. The man was a murderer: a murderer under Fidel Castro's early and growing regime, and a murderer, period. My Spanish teacher in highschool, also Cuban, was part of Batista's regime in Cuba before Castro invaded the country. The stories that he tells us, of everything that Che did, the amount of people that he murdered only because they weren't "Fidelistas" or just because they weren't in accordance with the country's sudden and new comander in chief; or the stories of how he killed, by list, every day, exactly at 9pm when the cannon's from El Morro (in Havana) would sound, without mercy: just a shot to the head and down the water they went...
These forgotten memories, these facts, these things about his life after he finished his trip through South America would make it impossible for me to watch the film without feeling repulsed towards him, even if it doesn't deal with the matter at all.