BY LOIS WADSWORTH
Ernesto (Gael Garcia Bernal, pointing) and
Alberto (Rodrigo de la Serna), dazzled by the
wonder of the natural world.
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Ernesto’s road trip with Alberto
MOTORCYCLE DIARIES: Directed by
Walter Salles Jr. Screenwriter, Jose Rivera, based on the
published diaries of Alberto Granado and Ernesto Che
Guevara. Produced by Edgar Tenembaum, Karen
Tenkhoff and Michael Nozik. Executive producers,
Robert Redford, Rebecca Yeldham, Paul Webster.
Cinematographer, Eric Gautier. Editor, Daniel Rezende.
Production design, Carlos Conti. Costumes, Beatriz du
Benedetto, Marisa Urruti. Musical score, Gustavo
Santolalla. Starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo de la
Serna. With Mia Maestro, Gustav Bueno, Jorge Chiarella
and Igo Calvo. Focus Features, 2004. R. 128 minutes.
S
et in 1952 in a continent of mostly
poor people living in dirty, over-
crowded cities surrounded by stun-
ning, empty landscapes of breathtaking natu-
ral beauty and generous-hearted Metizo peo-
ple, Motorcycle Diaries is a buddy movie, a
road trip and a coming of age story.
To enjoy what the film has to offer, which
is considerable, I had to give up the need for
an overarching focus or for contextual conti-
nuity. None of that exists. Instead, Walter
Salles Jr. has pieced together a number of
anecdotal episodes and travel notes from a
life-altering trip 23-year old Ernesto Che
Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal) took with his
29-year old friend, Alberto Granada
(Rodrigo de la Serna), through the interior
heart of South America: Argentina, Chile,
Peru, Colombia and the Andes, the Amazon,
Machu Pichu.
Alberto and Ernesto spend important
time at a remote leprosarium run by Catholic
sisters. By the 1950s, the treatment for lep-
rosy had advanced from the Dark Ages, but
affected people were still shunned and quar-
antined for their own protection, although
the disease is not contagious. Ernesto insists
on breaking down barriers and dismantling
the fascinating customs around the treatment
of the patients.
The two men, despite being good friends,
are dissimilar personalities. They fight and
call each other names, storm off and pout for
the next 100 miles. I like this, because I can-
not imagine sharing a grueling travel experi-
ence without some times when everyone
blows off steam. Both come from comfort-
able backgrounds, are well-educated —
Alberto is a chemist, Ernesto a medical stu-
dent. Until this trip, they have had no idea
how the poor live.
Ernesto is reserved, brutally honest, soft-
spoken. Alberto is bombastic, pragmatic —
not rigid — about truth-telling, and worried
about whether they have enough food and
money. The image of Ernesto is a young man
who becomes more serious and quietly
observant as their journey reveals more
about the suffering of impoverished, unem-
ployed indigenous people. I don’t detect
Ernesto with a martyr complex, as some in
the West have portrayed him, but he does
recognize the disparity between his privi-
leged life and that of others. Alberto takes
people as they are and likes most of them,
especially the women.
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You, too, may be
captivated by the faces of
the people who call this
southern continent
“America.” You will be
enchanted by its beauty and
humbled by its vastness.
You, too, may be captivated by the faces
of the people who call this southern conti-
nent “America.” You will be enchanted by
its beauty and humbled by its vastness. And
maybe some of the negative hype surround-
ing the historical figure of Che Guevara may
be toned down, at least in your heart. He died
an undeserved, brutal death at the hand of
thugs hired by our CIA, when he was only
33. But when he was younger, Che took a
trip into the landscape of his people and saw
hope.
ew
OCTOBER 21, 2004 47