Film

Pre-Revolutionary

'The Motorcycle Diaries' Is Pure Wanderlust

by Bradley Steinbacher

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THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES Whaddya say, Che?

Those hoping for a thorough bio of Ernesto "Che" Guevara are sure to be disappointed by Walter Salles' The Motorcycle Diaries. There are no cigars or fatigues, no striking figure that will one day adorn T-shirts and dorm-room walls. Even Cuba fails to earn much of a mention. And although there are whispers of the revolutionary spirit, they're just whispers, only barely audible to Guevara himself. Che is but a babe here (on many levels); the real adventures will occur later on, and in another movie.

Not that there aren't plenty of adventures to be found in Salles' film. Based partly on Guevara's own memoir, The Motorcycle Diaries is pure wanderlust brought to the screen. The wanderers are Guevara (pretty boy Gael Garc'a Bernal) and his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna), who, in December of 1951, set out on Granado's bruised Norton 500 motorcycle--nicknamed en broma as "The Mighty One"--to discover all that Latin America had to offer. The itinerary charted 8,000 kilometers. Eight months and over 10,000 kilometers later they finally parted ways, having survived numerous crashes, severe bouts of flu and asthma, and a stint working in a leper colony. They also survived their own political awakening--a frightening prospect for any young man.

And they were indeed young. At the time of the trip, Guevara was a mere 23 and Granado a ripe old 29. Both were appropriately reckless and shortsighted for their ages, still feeling invincible before that crushing blow that is 30 arrived. The pair had little money and even less food, their common sense remaining cock-blocked by the allure of irresponsibility. Guevara was putting off finishing medical school, Granado was putting off his life. The messy world of politics was just a slight buzzing in their ears, occasionally discussed, but for the most part easily kicked aside, especially when opportunities to drink and dance with señoritas presented themselves. Their journey wasn't about freedom for the masses, but freedom for themselves, and much of The Motorcycle Diaries is spent with Guevara and Granado simply bouncing their way along dirt roads, beautiful scenery inching past. The Mighty One barely makes it halfway through the journey, but its screen time is eventful; a graveled road, a punctured tire, a cow--each sends the travelers sailing from the bike at one point or another, but each time they spill the two merely dust themselves off and climb back on board. Their youthful zeal blinds them against the folly of their undertaking.

This youthful zeal is what The Motorcycle Diaries is truly concerned with, and it was a wise choice by Salles to resist dragging the film too deep into the mire of politics. One reason is that Salles obviously has far too much admiration to make an honest--and unflinching--biography of Guevara; another is that Che's later years are fairly indefensible, no matter how many T-shirts and posters his image adorns. Firing squads, labor camps, encouraged assassination--each would later bloody Guevara's hands, a fact usually ignored by those who eagerly embrace him and his image. Che may have been handsome, maybe even dashing, but he was also fanatical--and, quite often, outright wrong.

In contrast, the Guevara of The Motorcycle Diaries is not (yet) an authoritarian. He's a dreamer--dewy-eyed, romantic, and filled, for the most part, with hope. His major concern from the outset of the trip is to see as much as he can as fast as he can, and to that end he and Granado manage to make their way through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Columbia, and Venezuela, scamming food and beds (and, of course, women) whenever possible. It's not until near the end of the film, when Guevara and Granado arrive for work at a leper colony in San Pablo, Peru, that Salles lets matters turn preachy, but by then The Motorcycle Diaries has nearly earned a bit of sanctimony. This is a film that should be taken for what it is: a beautifully constructed road movie with a dash of conscience on the side. There is much to despise about Che Guevara later in his life; these early adventures help us understand where the eventual fanatic was born.