In 1952, a young Argentine medical student and his friend left on an aging motorcycle to travel through South America: from Buenos Aires to Chile, Peru, and on to Venezuela. The trip changed both men profoundly. Under his nickname, the youthful medical student Ernesto (Gael Garcia Bernal) would become the iconic revolutionary Che Guevara.
Basing his film on Guevara's memoir and his travel mate Alberto Granando's diaries, Walter Salles wisely limits his story to a formative time in Guevara's life. Instead of telling the entire epic story that led him from Argentina to Cuba, the Congo, and Bolivia, where he was killed in 1967, Salles only tells us about the motorcycle trip that sparked the transformation of an honest and ambitious asthmatic into a hero of the people.
With classic movie star looks, Gael Garcia Bernal ("Y Tu Mama Tambien") gives the historic figure both a larger-than-life quality and an endearing boyishness. He fumbles in the backseat with his reluctant girlfriend Chichina (Mia Maestro), and on the dance floor, he mistakes the mambo for the tango. Passionate and uncompromising, Ernesto and his friend Alberto (the wonderful Rodrigo de la Serna in his first film role) believe the road actually leads somewhere worth going.
As the journey progresses into what Che calls "the great mystery that surrounds us," the two men come closer to the land and to the socio-economic realities of South America--rife with poverty, desperation, and injustice. At Maccu Picchu, Ernesto wonders how the Inca culture that built the ancient, beautiful city could have been destroyed by intruders who built sprawling Lima as their capital. The increasingly politicized eyes of Guevara take it all in, and you can see newfound convictions replace his innocence.
Ernesto and Alberto end up crossing the Amazon, where they live and work in a remote leper colony. Guevara's determination, honesty, and care win him the love of the sick, and because Salles tells his story with similar honesty, "The Motorcycle Diaries" deserves the often misused label "inspiring." By carefully investigating the roots of the revolutionary impulse, Salles has created a lovely ode to idealism and compassion.
