In 1952, seven-years before he became a major figure of the Cuban revolution, Ernesto Guevara (1928-1967) (Gael García Bernal) and his close friend Alberto Granado (1922-2011) (Rodrigo de la Serna) embarked on a journey through Latin America to experience life before they would settle down into cushy middle-class jobs. This film is based on Guevara's written account of that time .What the trip reveals, however, is the revolutionary spirit inside Guevara, ignited by meeting and living with Latin America’s descalzos ( ‘those without shoes’) victimised and oppressed by ‘yankee’ capitalism.
As much a coming of age story as it is a road movie, The Motorcycle Diaries tracks the change in Guevara as he moves from a quietly wide-eyed youth into a man incensed by the dispossession he sees around him. Garcia Bernal is backed up by de la Serna as Granado, the smooth-talking foil to Guevara’s seriousness.
The Motorcycle Diaries is not so much about action as one would expect from a biopic of such a figure; In fact, the film is rather slow, poignant, and poetic – Guevara and Granado often sharing excerpts from poets such as Neruda and Lorca, important revolutionaries in Hispanic literature and politics in their own right. The film does not force the viewer to adopt the politics of its subject, rather showing them why Guevara came to the conclusions he did about the poor and indigenous people of his continent.
Supporter or detractor, The Motorcycle Diaries is important viewing for those interested in the man who would become Che Guevara. Revealed in the film is a side to the figure perhaps less freely shown: intellectual, passionate, caring. Based closely on the memoirs of both main characters, the film is also a lesson in the history of Latin America, and more importantly of the voiceless who could not write it themselves.
