The Motorcycle Diaries (image from Wikipedia)
It follows the travels of the 23-year-old Ernesto “Che” Guevara with his friend Alberto Granado. I am not familiar with Che but this film showed something of him. His travels to the Americas opened him to the realities of his time. He was a changed man. In my opinion, based on how his character is depicted on the film, he is a very honest, caring and passionate man. During the last part of the film, they resided for quite some time in a leper colony in Peru. A river runs across this area which also marked the division between the healthy and the sick. The staff and volunteers are housed in one side while the patients are housed in the other. In the night of Che’s 24th birthday, he swam across the river to get to the “sicker” side of the colony to truly celebrate his birthday. He didn’t care if he was born with bad lungs (there were several scenes in the film that described Che’s asthma attacks), he just had to get there. This was genuinely poignant.
Watch it, you’ll learn a thing or two from Che and his friend’s travels.
Tags: travel, movie review, motorcycle diaries, che guevara, south america, Gael García Bernal, spanish
