Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

The Motorcycle Diaries is a biographical film about Marxist Che Guevara. When I first saw this film a little over a year ago, I did not know this was based on a man's life journey across South America. This film tells the story of his experience from traveling across the country as a young man. We begin to see the encounters that shaped him into a revolutionary. He grows into a more mature man during the film, and he is changed by the end of the film. In the beginning he wants to meet women and be a famous traveler, but near the end he is fighting for the rights of the less fortunate. For whom this film is about, it is very interesting at how non-political the story is.

It is hard to believe that someone would embark on this journey on a rickety old motorcycle. Even when the events took place the bike was in horrible condition. This shows us the rebellious nature of Che and his friend Alberto. They were very much unprepared for the harsh road ahead, as well as the trouble and hard ach they would get into along the way. They are always running out of money and somehow still surviving. This is a movie that inspires people to be true to themselves in life and never stop fighting for what you believe in. They never gave up and finally reached their destination in the end.

The geography we see in the film is very true to the country during those times. Some of the most amazing film shots of parts of South America were shown in this film. We saw the Andes Mountains as they took a boat down the river. We also got to see Machu Picchu, the “Lost City of the Incas”, which was visually breathtaking. The film also showed the Amazon River near the leper colony. I realized that much of the South American landscape is unlike anywhere else in the world.

Most of South America was in poverty around these times, except for the rich plantation owners. We see a lot of poor immigrants in the film, as well as some racism toward other South American cultures. I found that in the 1960’s and 70’s the U.S. aligned military dictatorships in displaced or overthrown governments in many South American countries. Also around this time Che became more of a Marxist leader and lead some Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. It’s interesting that this young man is portrayed as such innocent person in this film, which means that it may be supporting Marxist beliefs.