The Motorcycle Diaries (film)

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The Motorcycle Diaries

Theatrical Poster
Directed by Walter Salles
Produced by Edgard Tenenbaum
Michael Nozik
Karen Tenkoff
Written by Screenplay:
José Rivera
Story:
Ernesto Guevara
Alberto Granado
Starring Gael García Bernal
Rodrigo de la Serna
Music by Gustavo Santaolalla
Cinematography Eric Gautier
Editing by Daniel Rezende
Distributed by Focus Features
Production Company:
BD Cine
Release date(s) January 15, 2004 (premiere at Sundance)
Running time 126 minutes
Country Argentina
Chile
France
Germany
Peru
UK
USA
Language Spanish
Quechua
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Motorcycle Diaries (Spanish: Diarios de motocicleta) (2004) is a biographical film about the young man who would later become internationally known as Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

It tells the story of a journey by motorcycle across South America in 1952 by young Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado. The film depicts the gradual development of Guevara's political outlook, but his revolutionary exploits are not mentioned except in a caption at the end.

The film is based on the books Diarios de motocicleta by Guevara, and Con el Che por America Latina by Alberto Granado. Guevara is played by Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, and Granado by the Argentine actor Rodrigo de la Serna.

Directed by Brazilian director Walter Salles and written by Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera, the film was an international co-production between production companies from Argentina, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile, Peru and France.[1]

The film's executive producers were Robert Redford, Paul Webstera, and Rebecca Yeldham; the producers were Edgard Tenenbaum, Michael Nozik, and Karen Tenkoff; and the co-producers were Daniel Burman and Diego Dubcovsky.

Contents

In 1952, a semester before Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara is due to complete his medical degree, he and his older friend Alberto, a biochemist, leave Buenos Aires in order to travel across the South American continent in search of fun and adventures. Their objective is to spend time working at a leper colony in the Peruvian Amazon, and then travel on to Venezuela. Their method of transport is Alberto's ancient and leaky but functional Norton 500 motorcycle christened La Poderosa ("The Mighty One").

Their route is ambitious. They head south, aim to cross the Andes, travel along the coast of Chile, across the Atacama Desert and into the Peruvian Amazon and reach Venezuela just in time for Alberto's 30th birthday, April 2nd. Due to La Poderosa's breakdown, they are forced to travel at a much slower pace, and make it to Caracas in July.

During their travel, Guevara and Granado encounter the poverty and suffering of the lower classes of society while the rich live ignorantly in their high life-styles away from the problems.

Rodrigo de la Serna (Granado), left, and Gael García Bernal (Guevara).
Rodrigo de la Serna (Granado), left, and Gael García Bernal (Guevara).

They meet a couple who have had their land taken away from them by the landowners, and the exploited workers of a mine. In Peru, they volunteer for three weeks at the San Pablo leper colony. There, Guevara sees both physically and metaphorically the division of society between the people and the rulers (the staff live on the north side of a river, separated from the lepers living on the south). He also observes little difference between the poor people of different countries, perceiving them to be part of an international oppressed class. Guevara also comes to see Catholic church dogma as stubborn and difficult.

These encounters with injustice change the way Guevara sees the world, and by implication motivate his later political activities.

Guevara makes his "final journey" one night when he chooses to swim across the river that separates the two societies of the leper colony and spends the night in a leper shack instead of in the cabins of the doctors. This journey implicitly symbolizes Guevara's rejection of the wealth and aristocracy into which he was born in Argentina and the path he would take later in his life fighting for what he believed was the dignity every human being deserves.

This choice was also earlier reflected at a scene when Guevara and Alberto were content with sleeping over at a peasant farm after losing their tent instead of going to the ranches higher up at the hills.

As they bid each other farewell, Alberto reveals that his birthday was not in fact April 2, but rather August 8, and that the stated goal was simply a motivator: Ernesto replies that he knew all along.

In a journey that lasts eight months, the partners travel over 13,000 kilometres, from Argentina through Chile, Peru, and Colombia to Venezuela. Key locations along the journey described in the film include:

  1. Buenos Aires, Argentina
  2. Miramar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  3. Villa Gesell, Buenos Aires Argentina
  4. San Martín de los Andes, Argentina
  5. Lago Frías, Patagonia, Argentina
  6. Temuco, Chile
  7. Los Ángeles, Chile
  8. Valparaíso, Chile
  9. Atacama desert, Chile
  10. Chuquicamata copper mines, Chile
  11. Cuzco, Peru
  12. Machu Picchu, Peru
  13. Lima, Peru
  14. The San Pablo Leper Colony in the Peruvian Amazon.
  15. Leticia, Colombia
  16. Caracas, Venezuela

  • Gael García Bernal as Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara de la Serna
  • Rodrigo de la Serna as Alberto "Mial" Granado
  • Mercedes Morán as Celia de la Serna
  • Jean Pierre Noher as Ernesto Guevara Lynch
  • Lucas Oro as Roberto Guevara
  • Marina Glezer as Celita Guevara
  • Sofia Bertolotto as Ana María Guevara
  • Franco Solazzi as Juan Martín Guevara
  • Ricardo Díaz Mourelle as Uncle Jorge
  • Sergio Boris as Young Traveler
  • Daniel Cargieman as Young Traveler
  • Diego Giorzi as Rodolfo
  • Facundo Espinosa as Tomás Granado
  • Mía Maestro Chichina
  • Matias Gomez as Kid
  • Diego Treu as Kid
  • Ariel Verdun as Kid
  • Gustavo Mansilla as Kid
  • Susana Lanteri as Aunt Rosana
  • Natalia Lobo as La Negra
  • Maida Andrenacci as Chichina's Friend
  • Bárbara Lombardo as Chichina's Friend
  • Dana Frijoli as Chichina's Friend

Tagline: Let the world change you and you can change the world.

The film was first presented at the Sundance Film Festival on January 15, 2004. Later it was featured at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2004.

The film screened at many other film festivals, including: the Auckland International Film Festival, New Zealand; the Copenhagen International Film Festival, Denmark; the Espoo Film Festival, Finland; the Telluride Film Festival, United States; the Toronto Film Festival, Canada; the Vancouver International Film Festival, Canada; the Celebrating Literature in Cinema Filmfestival Frankfurt, Germany; the Morelia Film Festival, Mexico; and others.

The New York Times film critic Sharon Waxman liked the film and wrote, "the film is remarkably nonpolitical...filmmaker Walter Salles shot the film's lyrical, lush images in sequence, the crew retracing the trip through Chile, Peru and Venezuela."[2]

Film critic A.O. Scott wrote that "in Mr. Salles's hands what might have been a schematic story of political awakening becomes a lyrical exploration of the sensations and perceptions from which a political understanding of the world emerges."[3] American television critic Leonard Maltin called it "the best film of 2004." He said, "The beauty of Walter Salles’ film is that we feel as if we are taking that journey, too. This is not a political film per se; it's about the maturing of a young man, and not about the revolutionary he became."[4]

However, the film's silence about Guevera's future activities offended those who are opposed to his politics. In an article claiming that Guevara has become a fashion icon, Jay Nordlinger of the generally conservative publication National Review calls the film "One of the most nauseating recent celebrations of Guevara" and executive producer Robert Redford "one of the most dedicated Castro apologists in Hollywood, which is saying something."[5] Similarly, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described the film's positive reviews as "a matter of Political Correctness, I think; it is uncool to be against Che Guevara." Ebert also criticized the film's characterization: "seen simply as a film, The Motorcycle Diaries is attenuated and tedious. We understand that Ernesto and Alberto are friends, but that's about all we find out about them; they develop none of the complexities of other on-the-road couples... Nothing is startling or poetic."[6]

See The Motorcycle Diaries (soundtrack).

The score for The Motorcycle Diaries was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla. The film's soundtrack was released on the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2004.

Wins

  1. ^ The Motorcycle Diaries at the Internet Movie Database.
  2. ^ Waxman, Sharon. The New York Times, film review, "From Imelda Marcos's Flats to the Golden Arches," January 24, 2005.
  3. ^ Scott A.O. The New York Times, film review, September 24, 2004.
  4. ^ Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's Video Review, February 15, 2005.
  5. ^ Jay Nordlinger. The National Review, "Che Chic," September 27, 2005.
  6. ^ Ebert, Roger. Chicago Sun-Times, film review, October 1, 2004.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

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Cinema of Argentina

Film Chronology • 1897-1929 • 1930s • 1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
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Preceded by
In This World		 BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
2004		 Succeeded by
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motorcycle_Diaries_%28film%29"
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