This is not a great film. Perhaps it is a good film. Depends on you, the unique audience member. The Film concerns Ernesto “Che” Guevara in his formative years as a medical student in Buenos Aires and his admittedly epic adventure crossing South America from Buenos Aires to Columbia. Cinematography, editing, dialogue, and acting range from very adequate to first rate. This was set in 1952, in the decade when communist and socialist ideals were really beginning to take root in Latin America. The 5,000 mile long odyssey is part travelogue and part political (some would say spiritual) awakening as well. Although it treads lightly on the political “Che” and his role as the iconic, even you could say, secular leftist “saint” of the Castro Regime, it is burdened by the weight of the baggage of what we know about Ernesto “Che” Guevara. It overshadows the entire film.
More for some, less for others.
The Motorcycle Diaries stars Gael Garcia Bernal as “Che”, Alberto Granado as Che’s buddy Rodrigo de la Serna. The supporting parts are all done very well. The peasants are convincing as peasants as are the rich Argentine gentry that are the parents of the girlfriend of “Fuser” (which is Guevara’s nickname in his youth). And the lepers and the nuns at the Peruvian leper colony are very much…well you get the idea. Everyone is convincing. Even the lonely mechanics wife. Plaudits all around for consistency.
This is a movie that inhabits a sub-genre; that is “The Great Man during his formative years sub-genre.” Many times these days this genre is used as a prequel for the original biographical movie. This movie as a prequel would be similar to making “Ivan The Terrible, The Teenage Years. It is hard to separate the tyrant from the carefree teenager. But that can be part of the pathos; how the idealistic appealing youth grows step by step into the monster in his adult years; but however you slice it or dice it, Cuban exiles are not going to care much for any picture about Ernesto “Che” Guevara that portrays him in any kind of positive or sympathetic light. And who can blame them?
As for me, or anyone of my ilk, there is a good reason to rent the “Motorcycle Diaries.” The beautiful period scenery of the South American Countryside and people. So strange and foreign, dramatic and bucolic, still filled with Native Americans that in a large measure are still not acculturated today some 500 or so years after the Spanish Conquest. The land is in many ways the star of the movie. From the pampas of Argentina to the Andes of Chile and Peru to the mighty rivers and jungles. What a backdrop!
One can’t complain too much. Taking on the entire life of Che Guevara in a film would be taking on the biography of two very different men. The young one had hopes and dreams and a good nature, and a common touch. The one to come would be a different story. It would be a different movie altogether. No one as yet, I believe knows what that movie would be…Tragedy, comedy, action-adventure, farce? Or what combination of them all?
Che Guevara died a martyrs death to some. Killed while a prisoner of the Bolivian Army. Most will say on the orders of the CIA. That is another tale, not ready yet these many decades after the fact. It would have to be a great film, and no one is ready for that, just now. Also no one is ready to make that film biography
So enjoy the “Motorcycle Diaries” for what it offers. It does offer quite a lot.
Credits and Cast
Celia de la Serna: Mercedes Moran
Dr. Bresciani: Jorge Chiarella
Alberto Granado: Rodrigo de la Serna
Chichina Ferreyra: Mia Maestro
Ernesto “Che” Guevara: Garel Garcia Bernal
. Written by Jose Rivera. Based on books by Che Guevara and Alberto Granados. Directed by Walter Salles Running time: 128 minutes. Rated R (for language). In Spanish with English subtitles.
by the way: Executive Producer: Robert Redford
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