The Motorcycle Diaries

Yes, yes. And anyone who says differently is selling something. But first, let’s try to sell our audiences something. ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13—Yet another remake of a semi-classic movie. This time it’s Ethan Hawke (as the police chief) and Lawrence Fishburne (as the gangster) against Gabriel Byrne (as the cop who sold his soul.) Drea de Matteo, John Leguizamo and Brian Dennehy also star in the remake of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite film. French director Jean-Francois Richet takes John Carpenter’s place. It’s interesting that this was given to a completely unknown director. I’ve never heard of any of his other films. Well, it looks like it could be total crap. Or maybe even almost good. I’ll check it out, but I have no real view of it right now. The preview is pretty typical.

Now, let’s get back to the pain.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal) wasn’t always a revolutionary leader. At one point he was just a med school student in Argentina who wanted to go on a trip around South America with his buddy Alberto Granada (Rodrigo de la Serna). The two guys wanted to make it to Venezuela in time for Alberto’s 30th birthday. They both wanted to see the real South America and, especially, to meet many women from different countries.

What they didn’t count on was building a revolution.

Along the way they met real people who were kicked off of their farms. They were no longer allowed to work the land that they had grown up on and were now poorer than they ever had been. Their governments were failing them. And Ernesto wanted to stop it.

We don’t see the revolutionary he became. That person only shows up in short bursts. This film is about the young man that would become Che. And it does a quite commendable job of showing us who he was. This kid wanted to be a doctor so that he could help people. What he saw changed him forever and changed the world in ways that he couldn’t have foreseen.

But the film also falls into the same trap that many buddy biopics fall into: the supporting character is more interesting than the main character. Alberto is a vibrant young man who has character to spare. Ernesto, while interesting, is more introspective and doesn’t have the personality of his buddy. It makes us like Alberto more and often takes the focus off of who we’re supposed to be here to watch.

But that’s kind of a minor quibble in what is actually a very beautiful movie. Cinematographer Eric Gautier caught South America the way it must have been in 1952 when Ernesto and Alberto made their trip. It’s beautiful and virtually unchanged. Sure, there are big cities, but there is even more natural parts that are just as cruel as the cities. The people living here are no better off than their urban counterparts. In fact, there are more cracks to fall through here.

Like Y Tu Mama Tambien, this film juxtaposes Alberto and Ernesto’s rich lives with the lives of the poor folk along the way. And like that film, it shows the injustice thrust upon these people from an outsiders point of view. But, by the time the guys reach the leper colony on the Amazon, they are insiders. And we feel a little closer to them, too.

By no means is this a perfect movie, but it is a very worthy movie. If you’ve ever been interested in the story of one of the most interesting revolutionaries in history, check it out.