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The importance of being Ernesto
"The Motorcycle Diaries" revs up the story of Ernesto Guevara's formative travels through Latin America before he became the revolutionary "ChŽ."
By LORA KOLODNY
Offoffoff.com
Advertisements suggest "The Motorcycle Diaries" is a film about Che Guevara.
But revered director Walter Salles — whose features and documentaries have
won awards at Telluride, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin — rejects biopic trappings. He portrays Guevara, not alone, in his greatest moments of leadership and
sacrifice, but in constant company with his best friend, when he was known
as Ernesto — not "El Che," the revolutionary icon, Fidel Castro's onetime
adviser, strident anti-imperialist and martyr.
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| | | THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES | Directed by: Walter Salles.
Written by: Jose Rivera.
Adapted from books by: ChŽ Guevara and Alberto Granado.
Cast: Gael Garc’a Bernal, Rodrigo De la Serna, M’a Maestro, Mercedes Mor‡n, Jorge Chiarella.
Cinematography: Eric Gautier.
Edited by: Daniel Rezende.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Related links: Official site |
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The movie begins as Ernesto Guevara (Gael Garc’a Bernal) a medical student,
and Alberto Granado (Rodrigo De la Serna), a young biochemist, set out on a
rickety Norton 500 motorcycle to see their continent beyond Buenos Aires.
Intending to live lean and party hard before taking up serious careers in
their respective fields, they anticipate road-trip challenges. Of course,
they end up hunting for their supper in somebody's back yard, and pushing
their mechanically wasted motorcycle (nicknamed "la poderosa," trans: the
mighty one) through snow, sand and more. But they are also surprised by
encounters with homeless miners, farmers forced into migration, riverboat
prostitutes, and lepers isolated from normal society and hospitals in remote
Peru.
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Salles and screenwriter JosŽ Rivera adapted the story from the memoirs and
journals of Guevara and Granado, and spent more than two years conducting
their research. Shot in over 30 locations, spanning Argentina, Chile, Peru
and Cuba, The Motorcycle Diaries follow Guevara's real trail as closely as
possible. (Some areas have become so industrialized or developed that they
would not fit a story set in the 1950s.) Cast and crew endured temperatures
from subzero to 113 degrees Fahrenheit working in the Amazon, the Andes,
Patagonia, the Atacama dessert, and the Peruvian San Pablo leper colony. As
with Salles' 2002 dramatic work "Behind the Sun" (or executive producer
Robert Redford's "A River Runs Through It"), majestic natural landscapes and
timeless architecture threaten to steal nearly every scene. But they
couldn't possibly — not from Bernal and De la Serna.
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The physically cerebral Bernal is hotter and younger than Brad Pitt, and as
commanding as repeat-biopic leading man Denzel Washington ("X," "The
Hurricane"). His Guevara is a sympathetic, not militant, fellow — one who
chokes to read that his passionate, impatient girlfriend Chichina Ferreyra
(M’a Maestro) is with another man; whose entire body succumbs to asthma
fits; who tangos with two left feet (Guevara couldn't dance). Meanwhile,
supporting actor De la Serna as Granado sheds a convincing tear for "la
poderosa" (the Norton 500), knows his mambo from his tango, and carries off
the smiling, fibbing and flirting of Guevara's counterpart with sparkle and
grace.
Salles, Bernal and De la Serna have managed to inject comic timing and
buddy-movie chemistry into an obviously poetic, achingly nostalgic drama,
making "The Motorcycle Diaries" every bit as engaging as "Midnight Run," or
provocative as "Easy Rider," without detracting from a dignified and
carefully studied subject.
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SEPTEMBER 29, 2004
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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