Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a brief rundown of the Walter Salles (CENTRAL STATION) flick MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, based on the youthful adventures of Che Guevara. This flick is getting amazing early word and I can't wait to get a look see. The below reads like more of a synopsis than a review, but it's quite clear that Mr. Hofzinser enjoyed the film.
Just came from a screening of The Motorcyle Diaries, the new film by Brazilian director Walter Salles. I think it will be shown in Cannes, but I don't know for sure. Anyway...
The film is about the early days of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary (who A LOT of people think he's Cuban, but he isn't). The story is a road movie about him when's 23 years old (played by Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal) and his friend, a biochemist named Cardozo (Rodrigo de la Serna). He is not yet THE "Che" Guevara we all know. He's just a medical student, born and raised in a wealthy family who plays rugby (a high class sport in Argentina) and is concerned about his girlfriend. The decide to travel South America, begining in Buenos Aires then Patagonia, across the Andes to Chile, Peru and finally Venezuela. They are young and naive and basically have some money to spend on a backpacking trek. They ride on an old Norton motorcycle.
The movie chronicles the journey, not only geographically but also emotionally of these two characters. We all sort of know about the adult "Che" Guevara, and whether you like him or not, he was an historically figure. Here, we are witness of the birth of the revolutionary, kinda like a birth of a superheroe, if you know what I mean.
He begins as a naive student, but while he travels he sees poverty, slavery (there's a scene in Chile where a foreman picks workers for a mine, that reminded me of slave trading in Africa or Middle East), the dismemberment of the American identity (America as the continent not as a short for USA) and the massacre the Europeans comitted slaughtering the native people. He feels that the people need to be freed and live together in peace, but that process is slow. First he tends some old dyin lady, then he gives his money away to some worker, then (in the 3rd act) he volunteers to work for a leper colony. We also have a glimpse of the origin of his nickname ("Che" means something like "hey!" in Argentina, a word every people born only in Buenos Aires say and clearly identifies you as an Argentine). The movie es clearly pro Guevara, but Salles doesn't idollize him. He describes the process of consciousness when he begins to feel his true calling, as Joseph Campbell would say.
The movie was produced by Robert Redford but it doesn't have American actors nor it's English spoken. Garcia Bernal does an amazing job as the young Che; he has a flawless Argentine accent, something very difficult since it's unique in Latin America.
Motorcycle Diaries is an epic story about the birth of Che Guevara. We witness only the begining but the movie leave us wanting more: the Revolutionary part. I hope that someday will be done (actually Terrence Malick and Benicio del Toro wrote about his last days, then Malick bowed out from the project)
Bye
Johann Hofzinser
