The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)



No Communist icon has filled so many capitalist coffers as Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Youthful look of that Latin American revolutionary leader, forever preserved by his martyrdom, as well as total irrelevance of his questionable ideas and revolutionary methods in post-Cold War world, turned him into the most convenient icon for rebellious youths in developed Western countries. 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 respect 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), 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. Along the way they experience all kinds of adventures, but young Guevara 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.

For most of the viewers, regardless of their political beliefs, THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES is a journey worth taking.

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