The Motorcycle Diaries

Diarios de motocicleta

If you have ever been a diehard communist (I was in my college days), you will love this movie. If you have ever loved taking out long bike rides with a buddy, you will cry and laugh as you watch this movie!

TMD narrates the story of Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna and Alberto Granado, who set out across the South American continent to see their land for themselves, before Alberto completes his 30th birthday.

Their journey is packed with adventure, not in the least due to Alberto’s desire to be the sexual ambassador of Argentina. One gains an insight into the ideation of Che as the rebel as Che and Alberto are touched by the lives of their fellowmen and the inherent poverty. In fact I was reminded of Steinbeck’s masterpiece - The Grapes of Wrath (about the lives of farmers in Oklahoma), during one of the scenes, where Che encounters a couple looking for jobs in a mining town.

The movie has typical Latino flavour – warmth and affection all round, humour in everyday life, right from the beginning, from the moment they get on “The Mighty One” to their attempts at night to setup a tent after a real hard day, to their trekking across the Atacama desert, to the bar scene with two Chilean sisters and the Mambo-Tango that’s named for Che.

The experiences of Che and Alberto with the leper colony in San Pablo in the Amazon, is a poignant take with itself – with the tales of Papa and Sylvia, being the grain that the Che legend is built on. The human side of the charismatic side was unknown to me, although I do possess a copy of “Guerrilla Warfare” - proof of his combat instincts. The climax of the movie by which time, Che and Alberto have gone way beyond their 8000 km plans, is a fitting end to the fable of Che. I wish Walter Salles could do one on the Guerrilla stage of Che. The movie is a cinematic masterpiece, worthy of the protagonist. The background score is an outstanding expression of Latin American music and so are the multiple tracks which make up the soundtrack.

Go see it, if only to see a bloody good movie – regardless of your inclinations!