Dir. Walter Salles, 2004, Argentina/Chile/USA/Peru/Germany/UK, 126 mins
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Miá Maestro, Mercedes Morán
The Motorcycle Diaries is Che Guevara before he was Che - before his image, defiant and James Dean-cool, was plastered over t-shirts, washing powder boxes, vodka bottles and student bedrooms the world over. No, this is Che when he was Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara De la Serna, a young, idealistic and naïve medical student set to embark on a haphazard trip through South America with his tubby, fun loving friend Alberto Granado. You could say that this is Che on his Gap Year.
Director Walter Salles has attempted to pry Guevara away from the branding, the marketing and the mythology and instead focus on the developing conscience and identity of a young radical. In doing so he reclaims a significant icon for Latin America and reaffirms and invigorates his own preoccupation with cultural identities in that turbulent region. As Gael Garcia Bernal says: "Che still belongs to Latin Americans". In some ways our relationship with the controversial Che Guevara is made easier by the fact that we are presented with him before he engaged in any of the savage and ruthless acts of the Cuban revolution.
The first half of the film is part skittering road trip, part buddy movie. Guevara and Granado, precariously huddled together on a ramshackle Norton 500 motorbike - "The Mighty One", blunder into a series of misadventures involving girls, booze and duck shooting. Blagging their way down the continent, they try to wangle lodgings for the night by claiming to be famous doctors travelling the area in a bid to cure leprosy. Beyond these escapades, Salles suggests that the two students, privileged and previously disconnected from the rougher side of Latin American life, regard poor people with a sort of innate arrogance. It is only in Guevara's instinctive need to tell the truth that the compassion and sense of injustice that will eventually propel him into revolution is initially apparent.
Much like the journey of Dora and Josue in Salles' earlier film, Central Station , the road movie format is used in The Motorcycle Diaries to show a snapshot of the people and communities the travellers encounter. Almost invariably, the poor people that Alberto and Ernesto meet are kind-hearted and generous. The exceptions are often those with money or authority. Stopping off at Guevara's girlfriend's mansion, we peek inside an affluent bourgeois household, full of snobbery and silver. The foreman at a Chilean mine is shown bundling people into the back of a truck with no regard for such basic needs as water.
In this regard, The Motorcycle Diaries has something of a rose-tinted outlook, romanticising Guevara, the trip and the people they meet. Presented as almost preternaturally compassionate, brave and magnetic, Guevara is almost granted a new mythological status as the boy-saint. Thankfully, there are enough human flaws and failings to avoid this. For example, a drunken Guevara tries to seduce a local mechanic's wife. So too the environment becomes less welcoming, and more hostile. Shooting in a freewheeling style with Super 16mm, Salles captured the severity of the terrain in stark cold colours. It mirrors Guevara's growing horror at the brutality around him. The lightweight camera equipment also allows Salles to create an improvisational style, coaxing natural and spontaneous acting from his two leads.
As the boyish "Fuser", Bernal turns in yet another superb performance. The poster boy for the current Latin American film renaissance, Bernal matches movie-star looks with the intelligence and intensity of Jake Gyllenhaal mixed with Robert Redford. His Guevara is charismatic, thoughtful, serious, charming, honest, cunning and - crucially - sexy. In short he is the man that all the guys want to be and all the women want to fuck. We have no difficulty in believing that in a few years time people will follow his call to revolution. Alongside him is the equally worthy De la Serna. Instead of being merely the light relief against a serious backdrop, De la Serna is witty and engaging as Guevara's Biochemist friend. In fact, it is perhaps Granado that we relate the most. As Guevara's idealism intensifies he becomes more aloof, whereas Granado, visibly moved and enriched by his epic and humbling adventures, retains his good-natured affability.
As screenwriter Jose Rivera says, this film is partly about "the inner geography of a boy turning into a man". This is a boy coming to terms with where he is from and trying to find a way to factor the injustice he sees all around him into his worldview. When Guevara and Granado reach their destination, a medical research centre for leprosy on the banks of the Amazon, Guevara gives an impromptu speech to the assembled staff. "We are one single Mestizo race" he says, as the crowd look on captivated. Ultimately the film is a moving and riveting hymn about youth, the power of compassion and the desire to make a difference.
Paul Mallaghan
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