re:mote voices

Title: The Motorcycle Diaries

Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo De la Serna, Mia Maestro, Mercedes Moran, Jorge Chiarella

Director: Walter Salles

In 1952 two Argentineans set out on a journey round South America. The plan is that Alberto Granado, a biochemist, will set out on this grand adventure, travelling south through Chile, round and up through Peru, Columbia, and culminating with a celebration of his 30th birthday in Venezuela. He is joined in his travels by the 23 year old Ernesto Guevara, a man months away from becoming a doctor.

However things don’t go as planned, the motorcycle they are travelling on is past it’s prime. Slowing them down, till they have to abandon the bike and carry on in anyway they can. As people involved with medicine, and to some degree intellectuals, they are travelling to see the continent they have only read about, while also paying a visit to a leper colony in Peru, an area Guevara hopes to work in. Coupled with their problems and the leper colony the pair get a much grittier and in-depth view of the state of a fractured people. Leaving Ernesto Guevara deeply troubled by the conclusion of their journey.

This is of course the series of events which Guevara’s eyes, and led to his involvement in revolution and the politics of South America. The travels followed in this film, by Brazillian director Walter Salles (who came to the attention of the world after the success of his film Central Station), are based on the published journals by both Granado and Guevara. Gale Garcia Bernal plays the part of Guevara, the Mexican actor probably being the hottest South American property of the moment, guiding his character through the events that made the man, and earned him the nickname Che – on arriving in Chile, the pair meet a couple of girls, who guess they are from Argentina because they say “che” all the time, from which they were being introduced as doctor chubby che and doctor skinny che.

As a story the film works to balance the travails of the road trip with the life of a continent and her people. Gradually working from the breakdown to walking with people forced off their lands, the evidence of escalating poverty, culminating in the segregation of the lepers. To some degree this sees the film go from lighter territory to darker, with Guevara becoming clearly disturbed, though by working the balance, and the film being so character driven, the humour and emotion of the film is strong and keeps things going steady.

With the lakes and valleys and mountains and rivers, so much of the Motorcycle Diaries is about the scenery, the environment. Which is perhaps where one slight criticism comes in. The film stock has a certain gritty feel, which is perhaps an attempt at creating a feeling of the period, or dictated by financial restraints. But it would have been nice to have seen more of the colour and potential brought to life on film. Though one visual effect which is used to great effect is the dispersal of black and white stills through the film, a documentation of the pictures taken by the pair as they travel, as they write.