 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
The Motorcycle Diaries - 9/25/04 - R - 128m
(Diarios de motocicleta)
Gael Garcia Bernal - Ernesto Guevara de la Serna
Rodrigo De la Serna - Alberto Granado
Mia Maestro - Chichina Ferreyra
Director: Walter Salles
Screenplay by: Jose Rivera
Studio: Focus Features
Official
Website
JEF
These are the types of films that after almost a full year of seeing bad movies restores my hope that there are still good movies being made. I also would put this film in the special category of “ART”. Many movies are pure entertainment, (even some of those fail)… but this movie reminds the viewer that film is an art form.
Storyline: Ernesto (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Alberto (Rodrigo De la Serna) are two good friends looking for adventure. Ernesto is about to graduate medical college and decides to have a last great adventure before settling down in his career as a doctor. Alberto is a Biochemist who has the same “bug” to get out and explore the world. Set in 1952 the two men set off on a 1939 motorcycle to explore Latin America.
This movie is based on the real life diaries of Ernesto Guevara. Ernesto later became known as “El Che”. I have to admit I was a little hesitant about seeing this film for fear that I would get lost in the ‘politics”. As the song says, “don’t know much about history”. Ernesto later met up with Fidel Castro, and became a military guerilla leader. In a way, I’m glad that I still don’t know too much about Ernesto. The movie dealt with the time early on in his youth as he was just developing his political beliefs. I think anyone watching this movie (including myself) could watch the movie and still come away with not knowing who Ernesto was. The movie was more about the adventures that Ernesto and Alberto had while on their motorcycle trips. That being said though, I will be searching the web to learn more about who this real person was.
I thought the acting was great all around and the story flowed nicely. There seemed to be a good balance between the “slow” parts and the “adventuresome” parts. There was a nice mix of humor and drama as well.
One word of caution… the movie is subtitled. This normally doesn’t bother me, but I usually like to know this ahead of time. There was one section that was poorly edited as well, where they showed white type against a white background. But this was only one or two lines of the entire movie. No big deal. Also because the acting is so well done, you could almost watch it without reading the subtitles and yet still have an idea what’s going on.
If you get the chance and are in the mood for a good “artsy” movie without aliens, or explosions, or car chases, then take some time and check this movie out.
Jef
