The Motorcycle Diaries Review

by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)
September 29th, 2004
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2

Before Che Guevara became a poster boy for leftists everywhere and before he led in the establishment of Hitler-like concentration camps and firing squads in totalitarian Cuba, he was a South American medical student. Walter Salles's THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES is a long, rambling and inconsequential ode to Che's pre-revolutionary youth, as Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna (Gael García Bernal) and fellow student Alberto Granado (Rodrigo De la Serna) tour their continent on one old motorcycle.

Although the picture has a few nice visuals, like a snow-covered mountain road, it is usually rather ugly, with grainy images and some handheld shots in which the camera appears to have been mounted on the back of a jackhammer. The film is full of pratfalls, as the two guys keep crashing their motorcycle as they drive it too fast on winding roads.

The story consists of little more than small vignettes of the guys pulling into various towns and making eyes at the local girls in bars or at dances. So little happens in the movie that it's quite hard to stay awake

I understand that there is a new film in Germany now that reveals Hitler's human side and shows how kind he could be in the right settings. Perhaps the two movies could be shown as a double feature, so long as this snoozer isn't shown first.

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES runs a ridiculously long 2:08. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles. It is rated R for "language" and would be acceptable for teenagers.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, October 1, 2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.

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