... With his older friend Alberto Granado (played by Rodrigo De La Senna) Ernesto sets out in 1952 from his middle class Buenos Aires home as he tells us, with:
“The objective: girls, beer and self discovery.
The means: a 1939 motorbike nicknamed “La Podoroso” (The Mighty One)
The method: ... Read review
The film tie-in edition of the established modern classic. In January 1952 two young men ... more
from Buenos Aires set out to explore South America on 'La Poderosa' the Powerful One: a 500cc Norton. One of them was the twenty-three-year-old Che Guevara. Written eight years before the Cuban Revolution these are Che's diaries -- full of disasters and discoveries high drama low comedy and laddish improvisations. During his travels through Argentina Chile Peru and Venezuela Che's main concerns are where the next drink is coming from where the next bed is to be found and who might be around to share it. Che becomes a stowaway a fireman and a football coach; he sometimes falls in love and frequently falls off the motorbike. Within a decade the whole world would know his name. His trip might have been an adventure of a lifetime -- had his lifetime not turned into a much greater adventure.
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In 1952, a young medical student and a biochemist from Argentina set off on a road trip ... more
across South America. As they straddled their beaten up motorcycle, the men talked in awed tones of the sights they were about to experience. The record of their trip may have disappeared into the ether if one of the riders departing on that fateful day hadn't been the future insurrectionary figurehead of the Cuban revolution, Ernesto Che Guevara (played here by Gael Garcia Bernal). The young Che's companion on the trip was his best friend, Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna), with their simple goals being to enjoy themselves, and meet some girls along the way. As the trip unfolds at the behest of their spluttering motorcycle, the boys discover more about themselves than they ever imagined possible. Ernesto clings tightly to his ideals throughout, and delights in the opportunity to put them into practice. His refusal to spend the $20 provided by his girlfriend, Chichina Ferreyra (Mia Maestro), constantly angers his travelling companion as the two succumb to pangs of hunger. Ernesto's charitable nature comes to the fore when he reveals that he gave the money to a pair of out-of-work illegal immigrants. The trip winds down as the friends offer their medical expertise to a leper colony in Peru, with the duo's youthful folly acquiescing to adulthood, and the dawning realization of where they should head in life.
Let the world change you... and you can change the world.Based on the journals of both ... more
Alberto Granado (Rodrigo De La Serna) and Ernesto Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal), the man who would later become 'Che', The Motorcycle Diaries follows a journey of self-discovery, tracing the origins of a revolutionary heart.With a highly romantic sense of adventure, the two friends leave their familiar surroundings in Buenos Aires on 'The Mighty One' - a rickety 1939 Norton 500. Although the bike breaks down in the course of their eight month journey, they press onward, hitching rides along the way. As they start to see a different Latin America in the people they meet on the road, the diverse geography they encounter begins to reflect their own shifting perspectives. They continue to the heights of Machu Picchu, where the majestic ruins and the extraordinary significance of the Inca heritage have a profound impact on the young men. When they arrive at a leper colony deep in the Peruvian Amazon, the two are beginning to question the value of progress as defined by economic systems that leave so many people beyond their reach. Their experiences at the colony awaken with them the men they will later become.
Apertura Lago Frias Leaving Miramar Chipi Chipi Montana Jardin Procesion La Partida La ... more
Muerte De La Poderosa La Salida De Lima Que Rico El Mambo Curculo En El Rico Amazonas Leyendo En El Hospital El Cruce Partida Del Leprosario De Usuahia a La Quiaca Revolucion Caliente Al Otro Lado Del Rio
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2000 - Drama - Director: Giuseppe Tornatore - Original Language: Italian - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Advantages: A film about friendship and injustice, with jaw-dropping cinematography Disadvantages: Makes you want to pack your rucksack right away...
...quite simply a reproduction of the travelogue kept by the twenty-three year old Ernesto Guevara (played by the rather gorgeous Gael García Bernal) who will one day be nicknamed Che, the Argentinean slang meaning “friend”. With his older friend Alberto Granado (played by Rodrigo De La Senna) Ernesto sets out in 1952 from his middle class Buenos Aires home as he tells us, with:
“The objective: girls, beer and self discovery.
... ...One)
The method: improvisation.”
The men have little if any money, an ambitious goal to be back in time for Alberto’s thirtieth birthday, some three months away, and a planned trip that would simply take your breath away.
Jump on the back of that oil-spluttering old Norton 500 and allow the Diarios to take you down from Buenos Aires to Miramar, and a final cuddle with Ernesto’s beautiful girlfriend Chichina, ... more
“Diarios De Motocicleta” is quite simply a reproduction of the travelogue kept by the twenty-three year old Ernesto Guevara (played by the rather gorgeous Gael García Bernal) who will one day be nicknamed Che, the Argentinean slang meaning “friend”. With his older friend Alberto Granado (played by Rodrigo De La Senna) Ernesto sets out in 1952 from his middle class Buenos Aires home as he tells us, with:
“The objective: girls, beer and self discovery. The means: a 1939 motorbike nicknamed “La Podoroso” (The Mighty One) The method: improvisation.”
The men have little if any money, an ambitious goal to be back in time for Alberto’s thirtieth birthday, some three months away, and a planned trip that would simply take your breath away.
Jump on the back of that oil-spluttering old Norton 500 and allow the Diarios to take you down from Buenos Aires to Miramar, and a final cuddle with Ernesto’s beautiful girlfriend Chichina, (sexily played by Mia Maestro) to Lago Frías until we cross over to Los Angeles in Chile.
Along the way the men have had some fun, they’ve fallen off the bike more than once, La Podoroso is remarkably held together by wire more than ever before and that method of improvisation has made them some interesting and kindly friends along the way. Alberto has a fiendish sense of fun and more than a few dance steps to keep the Argentinean and Cuban women interested and Ernesto spluttering in faux shock!
They also have a need to eat every so often, but a ridiculous article in an important paper which has them down as travelling doctors who have cured innumerable people in their travels is remarkably handy in persuading people to let them bed down for the night or for blagging a hot meal for free. Oh no, I didn’t say that we were travelling with saints did I!
Travelogues are by necessity episodic in nature aren’t they? As the landscape changes so do the outlooks and fortunes of our two heroes, but the standard of cinematography is our reliable constant.
Through the tough Atacam Desert of Chile we will meet a couple of communists who must seek the very dangerous work in the mines because they have been forced off their own land and only mine owners will not enquire too deeply about their beliefs. When the penniless couple ask Ernesto where they are going his reply:
“We travel to travel. We travel for the travelling.”
Sounds so weak, so odd and the looks of complete wonderment and lack of comprehension on the faces of the homeless couple speak volumes.
This couple is so compelling that we find ourselves going with them to the Chuquicamata Mines to see if they do successfully find work. Ernesto finds the conditions simply intolerable and in his frustration shouts out that surely the miners are deserving of at least some water. His answer is to be asked to leave:
“This is not a tourist attraction…” I remember the line well because I am reliably informed that now, in 2004 that is exactly what the mine is!
By the time that we reach the incredible Inca ruins at Machu Picchu the motorbike is a distant memory and we are tired and weak, but the destruction of that noble race is an even more pervasive feeling.
A meeting with the academic left wing Dr Hugo Pesce in Lima subtly underpins the increasing awareness of the injustices that are met on the road every day of this trip. Finally Ernesto and Alberto arrive at the San Pablo leper colony in northern Peru where they will stay for a while. Here their paths will be determined, both have changed significantly from the start of their journey, they are literally more worldly wise, but their new understandings will lead them in different directions…
“The Motorcycle Diaries” is a wonderful piece of cinematography, shot in over 30 locations and over 84 days. It takes the viewer to intimate and stunning parts of South America and this alone would make it deserving of praise. However, more significantly, where Che Guevara has become an icon, a representation of something, an ideal, this film single-handedly manages to bring the man himself back into focus.
It would have been easy to over-do the “revelatory” side of the film but the producers have managed to contain it so that Ernesto’s dawning awareness of injustice is a slow one and never rammed down the viewer’s throat. In fact, although this is obviously a sub-titled film for the English-speakers this matters very little as the spoken word is used relatively infrequently, particularly in the second part of the film, where the stunning cinematography and tragic conditions that our heroes witness can more than speak for themselves.
The score is never intrusive but always adds to the atmosphere and is unsurprisingly South American in nature! Stand out moment for me were the rather comical rendition of “Chipi Chipi” by Maria Ester Zamora, the atmospheric “Apetura” and the beautifully wistful “Jardin”.
It is interesting to note that Director Walter Salles (Central Station) and Producer Jose Rivera agreed to shoot the film in sequence. They also encouraged our two heroes to improvise, particularly on meeting “new” acquaintances on the road, and much of this initial improvisation was apparently incorporated in the finished piece.
The acting from all quarters, but particularly from the two leads, Gael García Bernal and Rodrigo De La Senna is quietly understated. They play it so that the friendship between the two men can take centre stage. This suits the sultry atmosphere in the later parts of the film and reminds us of just how far from the early hilarity we have travelled. However the happy-go-lucky cheeky-chappy that is the early Alberto is also fabulously well played by De La Senna, with just the right swagger and sarcastic comments to his friend for good measure!
As almost everybody on the planet knows, Che Guevara was shot dead in Bolivia by the CIA in 1967, when he was just 39, and from there his iconic stature was ensured. In contrast, the now 82 year old real life cousin of Che Guevara, Alberto Granada is apparently still in great form and was happy to act as consultant to the producers to recollect his exciting, exhilarating and life-changing travels - even if they didn’t get home in time for his 30th birthday.
Advantages: excellent, lyrical and moving film Disadvantages: occasionally overly reverential and heavy-handed
At the beginning of 1952, 29-year-old Alberto Granado and 23-year-old Ernesto Guevara “Fuser” de la Serna set out on a planned Odyssey the length and breadth of Latin America, starting in their beloved Argentina and taking in Chile, Peru and Colombia before reaching their projected destination at the northernmost point of Venezuela. On this touching and romantic (in the Dumas sense of the word) journey, the twinkling-eyed biochemist and his young ... ...out to learn all about the America they lived with but failed to understand…
For The Motorcycle Diaries, director Walter Salles drew on two books, the journals of Granado and Guevara. Although the story is in a way the prequel to the mythology of the Cuban revolutionary and there is one main character, each man has a prominent role to play, and this is reflected in the excellent casting of Gael Garcia Bernal as Guevara and Rodrigo de la Serna as ...
ruth_cole 23.03.2005 (24.03.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Motorcycle Diaries (DVD)
Advantages: Great performances, breathtaking cinematography Disadvantages: Some of the symbolism is somewhat crude
...motorbike from Buenos Aires to the very tip of Venezuela, see the scenery, discover the “real” Latin America and maybe pick up some girls on the way. Little was he to know how much the journey would change his life, inspiring him to fight for the oppressed on two continents and to die for the socialist cause. For Ernesto was to become “Che” Guevara, freedom fighter and T-shirt icon extraordinaire.
I have a problem with the canonisation of Ernesto ... ...into this supposed hero of the people without checking the facts. And by fomenting socialist revolution in South America and Africa Guevara was responsible both directly and indirectly for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children. Countries he influenced have freely participated in religious and political persecution and despite preaching equality for all, the gap between rich and poor still remains, except there are fewer rich people to ...
afy9mab 15.02.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Motorcycle Diaries (DVD)
Advantages: First hand sources used for authenticity; funny, charming and thought-provoking Disadvantages: Subtitles unpopular with some viewers
...divided. He is seen, on the one hand, as a freedom-fighting hero who, despite a debilitating illness and the "burden" of a middle-class up-bringing, never lost sight of his goals, dedicating his adult life to fighting imperialism and creating a more just society, expecially in countries that had been exploited by the United States. Others see him as nothing more than a terrorist - someone thirsty for adventure, a "gun-for-hire" moving from country ... ...up their men.
The "Motorcycle Diaries" is an account, taken form Ernesto's own diaries, chronicling his trip by motorcyle in 1952, through South America with his cousin Alberto Granado. Not only does the film stick closely to the material in the diaries, but Granado acted as a consultant on the film, ensuring it was as authentic as possible. Not only do the exploits of young Ernesto and Alberto provide an excellent adventure story, regardless of ...
fizzytom 24.05.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Motorcycle Diaries (DVD)
Advantages: great acting, great scenery, made a man from the myth Disadvantages: took a bit of time to get used to the subtitles, no other complaints!
...real experience, and one of the best films I have seen in a while. I didn't really know what I was getting - I must admit that when I first saw this advertised it struck me as a Latin version of that Ewan McGregor film that had just been advertised everywhere (long Way Round) and, having just read the LWR book I was quite into journeys by motorbike! This obviously had a different sort of emphasis but I suppose at heart they are similar - two guys, ... ...great people. The story is about a turning point in the life of 'Che' (Friend) Guevara, a revolutionary who is possibly more famous among our young people for starring on posters and t-shirts and generally being a bit of an icon or symbol. I must admit to not knowing all that much about Guevara himself (but I did feel inspired to go and widen that knowledge after watching the film), but I could appreciate how the film doesn't try and force any political ...
aunico 09.06.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Motorcycle Diaries (DVD)
...revolutionary legend. However, who is the real Che Guevara? In 1952, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna embarked upon a life-defining motorcycle trip around Latin America with biochemist and long-term buddy, Alberto Grenada. The Motorcycle Diaries is based upon the written accounts of the adventurers on their travels. Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara is played by Gael Garcia Bernal while the comical rascal of Alberto is played by Rodrigo de la Serna.
The journey ... ...The film accurately captures the roller-coaster ride of emotions both characters go through as they see for themselves the poverty of many of their fellow Latin Americans as they travel through Chile, Peru, Bolivia and finally, Venezuela. On their travels, they are profoundly affected by many tales of local workers who have had their livelihoods stripped away by external capitalist forces and are now compelled to work in what effectively amounts ...
thomlafferty 12.09.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Motorcycle Diaries (DVD)
A young Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and his best friend Alberto Granado set off on a road trip across South America aboard their beaten up motorcycle, with a mission to enjoy themselves and meet girls. As the trip unfolds at the behest of their spluttering motorcycle, the boys discover more about themselves than they ever imagined possible. The culmination of which is their work in a leper colony in Peru, where they reach the dawning realization of where they should head in life.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
2 ENTERTAIN VIDEO; SONY DADC, 4DVD; SPIRIT ENTERTAINMENT; TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
A film you'll never forget... A masterpiece. (Film Review, )
A triumph (The Observer, )
Powerful (Time Out, )
DVD Description
In 1952, a young medical student and a biochemist from Argentina set off on a road trip across South America. As they straddled their beaten up motorcycle, the men talked in awed tones of the sights they were about to experience. The record of their trip may have disappeared into the ether if one of the riders departing on that fateful day hadn't been the future insurrectionary figurehead of the Cuban revolution, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (played here by Gael Garcia Bernal). The young Che's companion on the trip was his best friend, Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna), with their simple goals being to enjoy themselves, and meet some girls along the way. As the trip unfolds at the behest of their spluttering motorcycle, the boys discover more about themselves than they ever imagined possible. Ernesto clings tightly to his ideals throughout, and delights in the opportunity to put them into practice. His refusal to spend the $20 provided by his girlfriend, Chichina Ferreyra (Mia Maestro), constantly angers his travelling companion as the two succumb to pangs of hunger. Ernesto's charitable nature comes to the fore when he reveals that he gave the money to a pair of out-of-work illegal immigrants. The trip winds down as the friends offer their medical expertise to a leper colony in Peru, with the duo's youthful folly acquiescing to adulthood, and the dawning realization of where they should head in life. Based on the books THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (by Guevara) and TRAVELLING WITH CHE GUEVARA (by Granado), director Walter Salles (CENTRAL STATION) pulls some highly accomplished performances from his two leads. The South American landscape is breathtakingly captured on camera, with Salles vividly reproducing a continent beleaguered by poverty and disease, but containing a population in possession of an unshakeable sense of optimism, as beautifully personified by Guevara and Granado.
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