The Motorcycle Diaries () is a 2004 biographical coming-of-age road film directed by Walter Salles from a screenplay by José Rivera, based on Che Guevara's 1995 memoir of the same name and Alberto Granado's memoir Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary. The film recounts the 1952 expedition, initially by motorcycle, across South America by Guevara and Granado, observing the life of the impoverished indigenous peasantry. Through the trip both of them witness the social classes struggle in Latin America.

It stars Gael García Bernal (who had previously played Che in the 2002 miniseries Fidel) as Guevara, and Rodrigo de la Serna as Granado (Serna himself is second-cousin to Guevara on his maternal side).

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 15 January 2004, and was later added into the main competition of the 57th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. It was received with positive reviews from critics. At the 77th Academy Awards, Rivera was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay category, while Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler won the Best Original Song category for "Al otro lado del río".

Later, in Peru, they volunteer for three weeks at the San Pablo leper colony. There, Guevara observes both literally and metaphorically the division of society, as the staff live on the north side of a river, separated from the deprived lepers living across the river to the south. To demonstrate his solidarity, and his medical belief that leprosy is not contagious, Guevara refuses to wear rubber gloves during his visit as the head nun requires, choosing instead to shake bare hands and interact normally with the surprised leper patients.

At the end of the film, after his sojourn at the leper colony, Guevara confirms his nascent egalitarian, revolutionary impulses, while making a birthday toast, which is also his first political speech. In it, he calls for the unification of South America on the basis of the unity of the Mestizo people. These encounters with social injustice transform the way Guevara sees the world and his purposes in it, and by implication motivates his later political activities as a Marxist revolutionary.

Guevara makes his symbolic "final journey" at night when, despite the danger and his asthma, he swims across the river that separates the two societies of the leper colony, to spend the night in a leper shack, instead of in the doctors' cabins. Later, as they bid each other farewell at an airport, Granado reveals that his birthday was not 2 April, but rather 8 August, and that the aforementioned goal was simply a motivator: Guevara replies that he knew all along. The film closes with an appearance by the real 82-year-old Alberto Granado, along with pictures from the actual journey and a brief mention of Che Guevara's eventual 1967 CIA-assisted execution in the Bolivian jungle.

Cast

Production

Development

In a journey that lasts eight months, the partners travel over 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles), from Argentina through Chile, Peru, and Colombia to Venezuela. Key locations along the journey described in the film include: in Argentina: Buenos Aires, Miramar, Villa Gesell, San Martín de los Andes, Lago Frías, Patagonia and Nahuel Huapi Lake; in Chile: Temuco, Los Angeles, Valparaíso, the Atacama Desert, and Chuquicamata; in Peru: Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Lima, The San Pablo Leper Colony; as well as Leticia, Colombia and Caracas, Venezuela.

Reviewer Nick Cowen of The Daily Telegraph described the scenery as "visually stunning" while remarking that "the cinematography of fog-cloaked mountains, lush, green forests and sunburnt deserts is breathtakingly beautiful enough to serve as a travel advert for the entire continent."

The crew filmed in the same San Pablo Leper Colony that Guevara himself had visited. According to Bernal, 85% of the people suffering leprosy in the film were actual lepers, with some of them having lived there when Che and Granado worked at the colony. Granado was also pleased that buildings constructed for the scenes shot at the leprosarium were afterwards used by the patients themselves.

The scene which features Guevara's character swimming across to the other side of the river was filmed during three nights in which Bernal swam across the actual Amazon River.

The film later screened at many other film festivals, including: the Auckland International Film Festival, New Zealand; the Copenhagen International Film Festival, Denmark; the Espoo Film Festival, Finland; the Telluride Film Festival, United States; the Toronto International Film Festival, Canada; the Vancouver International Film Festival, Canada; the Celebrating Literature in Cinema Film Festival Frankfurt, Germany; and the Morelia Film Festival, Mexico.

;Release dates

  • United States: 15 January 2004 (premiere at Sundance Film Festival)
  • France: 7 July 2004
  • Argentina: 29 July 2004
  • United Kingdom: 27 August 2004
  • United States: 24 September 2004
  • Chile: 21 October 2004
  • Germany: 28 October 2004

Reception

Critical response

The Motorcycle Diaries was released to very positive reviews by critics, and received a standing ovation at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. The New York Times film critic, A.O. Scott, wrote that "in Mr. Salles's hands what might have been a schematic story of political awakening becomes a lyrical exploration of the sensations and perceptions from which a political understanding of the world emerges." Gregory Weinkauf of the Dallas Observer espoused that the film "delivers as both biography and road movie, and proves itself a deceptively humble epic, an illuminating part of the Che legacy." Claudia Puig of USA Today postulated that "the movie achieves an impressive blend of emotional resonance and light entertainment" while describing it as "more coming-of-age story than biopic" and "a transformative adventure well worth watching." Keri Petersen of The Gainesville Sun referred to the film as "a gorgeous, poetic adventure."

Paula Nechak of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer praised director Salles by remarking that he "presents the evolutionary course of a young man who coincidentally became the dorm-room poster boy for an idealistic generation, and captures the lovely, heart-and-eye-opening ode to youthful possibility with affection and compassion." Washington Post critic Desson Thomson lent praise for the film's starring actor by observing that "what Bernal and this well-wrought movie conveys so well is the charisma that would soon become a part of human history, and yes, T-shirts."

Among the film's few detractors was Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who described the film's positive reviews as "a matter of political correctness, I think; it is uncool to be against Che Guevara." Jessica Winter of The Village Voice also criticized the film's simplistic representation of the peasantry, describing "the young men's encounters with conscience-pricking, generically noble locals" who are occasionally assembled "to face the camera in a still life of heroic, art-directed suffering". The film also received criticism for its positive representation of Guevara as a youthful idealist. Anthony Daniels, an outspoken critic of Guevara's, argued that the film helps to continue his wrongful glorification, noting "The film is thus the cinematic equivalent of the Che Guevara T-shirt; it is morally monstrous and emotionally trivial." Frans Weiser agreed, saying that the film's narrative is dominated by reductive images of Guevara as an idealistic, loveable rogue.

Online review aggregator Metacritic gives the film a score of 75 out of 100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Meanwhile, Rotten Tomatoes records an 83% approval rating based on 157 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Motorcycle Diaries is heartfelt and profound in its rendering of the formative experiences that turn Ernesto "Che" Guevara into a famous revolutionary." Furthermore, British historian Alex von Tunzelmann, who reviews films at The Guardian for historical accuracy, graded the film an A− in "History", while giving the film a B in "Entertainment". After comparing scenes from the film to the actual diaries, Tunzelmann posited that "The Motorcycle Diaries gets a lot right, it's an entertaining and accurate portrayal of the formative youth of a revolutionary icon."

  • Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Festival: Audience Award Walter Salles; 2004.
  • Academy Awards: Oscar; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song; Jorge Drexler; for the song "Al otro lado del río"; 2005.
  • Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Best Actor, Rodrigo de la Serna; Best Music, Gustavo Santaolalla; Best Adapted Screenplay, Jose Rivera; 2005.
  • British Academy of Film and Television Arts: Best Film Not in the English Language, Michael Nozik, Edgard Tenenbaum, Karen Tenkhoff, Walter Salles; Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, Gustavo Santaolalla; 2005.
  • Goya Awards: Goya; Best Adapted Screenplay, José Rivera; 2005.
  • Imagen Awards: Best Picture; Best Director, Walter Salles; Best Supporting Actor, Rodrigo de la Serna; 2005.
  • Independent Spirit Awards: Independent Spirit Award; Best Cinematography, Eric Gautier; Best Debut Performance, Rodrigo de la Serna; 2005.

Oscars controversy

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has very specific eligibility rules for (what was known at the time as) the Best Foreign Language Film Award. This film, being a co-production between many countries, was ruled ineligible because "it didn't have sufficient elements from any of the countries to qualify".

Focus Features co-president David Linde responded to the ruling by saying "It's a truly indigenous movie, but in this case that doesn't mean one country, it means the world. The success of the film overseas affirms how audiences are loving it. We are moving ahead as planned when we bought it at Sundance." The film was campaigned for all the other categories it was eligible for, which was the majority of them.

References

  • Che's Route Revisited on Authentic Period Norton Motorcycles
  • NPR Audio Report: Film Looks at Twenty-something Che Guevara by David Edelstein

; Press

  • "On the Trail of the Young Che Guevara". The New York Times, 19 December 2004
  • "Take Inspiration From Che and Discover South America". Easier Travel, 3 June 2009
  • "The Motorcycle Diaries: How Ernesto turned into Che Guevara". Stephen Philip, Socialist Worker, August 2004
  • "Motorcycle Diaries: Che Guevara and the Romance of Revolution". Megan Cornish, Freedom Socialist, December 2004