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The Motorcycle Diaries: Where's Che?
I have recently watched The Motorcycle Diaries and I set out to review it without knowing what I was getting into. The first thing to do was learn a bit more Che Guevara's life because, even though I still did not know much about Che, I had the feeling that the movie was a bit too pink eyed for the t-shirt Che or for the real Che.
That much was true. Che is the hero of the revolutionary left but he was also a killer and an advocate of the guerilla revolution. He also helped Cuban Castro set up the first Cuban concentration camps and was is charge of many executions and some say torture. Even in the original Motorcycle Diaries he wrote, Amazon says "Guevara's snide passing remarks targeting blacks, homosexuals and Jews reveal an unpleasant side of the countercultural icon": very far from being the idealist, righteous and honest your man that Gael plays in the movie. In that sense, this film is very misleading. The young Che of the Diaries is a nice guy that anyone would like, just like the young man in the Robin Williams' Seize the Day or any other innocent and coming of age young man in a lot of movies. Unfortunately, Che's life is far removed from that picture.
This being said, I really enjoyed Motorcycle Diaries. It is a great story. The episodes are generally well told, the different characters they meet are a convincing gallery of people , the places they see, the images, many dialogues. By the end of the film, you have the feeling that you too have travelled and seen different places and lived through various situations and you too have learned (but because you see poverty, do you become a revolutionary killer?).
The greatest achievement of the movie, other than being well made, is to rekindle the Che discussion. It surpasses the t-shirt photo image and forces the audience into a deeper search for the real man and into history. Fortunately a lot of the leftist idology is gone and we have gained some distance to evaluate facts as they were, as long as we distance ourselves from the present day ideologies and vocabulary (replace revolutionary by terrorist, revolution by terrorism, communism by terror and so on).
A small last word for Gael García Bernal who is a good Che Guevara, as one would expect given his long career and being an Almodovar actor. Is he going to be the next Banderas in Holywood?
A really great interview of Gael in TIMBT - Then It Must Be True. TIMBT is "ThenItMustBeTrue is a forum of respect for the artists, the audience, and the journalist, valuing an artist's integrity as well as the reader's intellect. It is time that a space was provided for untainted and unfettered interviews with the artists behind the music and visual media that are defining our time. Where it's not commercial interest, but the interest of the artists and fans that is at heart. Where what's most important is ensuring that what the artist says is what ends up on the page -- not editing those thoughts to death. Where the input of the artists is what matters most so that these contributors feel they can communicate directly with their audience without fearing the tongue-twisting roadblocks encountered at typical mass media outlets." Great! Will revisit.
Some links:
Imdb link
Official website
Che Lives
The Che Guevara internet library
Another Che page
100 photos of Che Guevara