Road movie from Walter Salles, director of Central
Station. Starring Gael García Bernal as the young Che Guevara,
it’s a love letter to Latin America – and to the wakening
vocations of two privileged young men embracing, for the first time,
the world outside their comfort zones. Charting the journey of Guevara
and his friend Alberto Granado from Buenos Aires through Chile, Peru
and finally to Venezuela, the film is as switched on as its protagonists
by the sights and sounds of the journey. “The Motorcycle Diaries
is a beautifully wrought account of the dawning of the social conscience
of one of the 20th century’s most romanticized revolutionaries.
In gradual increments, Brazilian director Walter Salles’ best
film to date reveals how an eight-month trip through South America in
1952 opened the eyes of a 23-year-old upper-middle-class Argentinian
medical student named Ernesto Guevara, who a few years later emerged
as the charismatic Che… This intelligently made picture is artful
but not arty, political without being didactic.” — Todd
McCarthy, Variety. “The movie’s initially odd preference
for lush scenery and random incident over history and ideas allows for
the startling emergence of a rather lovely message: revolution can sprout
from anywhere and anyone at any time; in fact, it’s in our nature.”
— Rob Nelson, City Pages
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