The Motorcycle Diaries (DVD)

Yep, good film this one albeit now quite the 'masterpiece' it's been hyped.

The usual rules apply when watching a foreign language film - if you read the subtitles and still really care about the characters and get absorded by the strong storyline, then the dialogue language is immaterial.

The film works as the story of 2 young men who underatke an adventure to ride an ancient motorcycle around their own continent of South America. From relatively affluent backgrounds and medically trained, they want to see how the real people scratch a living and become deeply affected by what they experience. One of the young men will one day become the famous/notorious guerilla leader Che Guevara and the narrative of this true story is provided by his friend and fellow traveller.

It's beautifully fimed, well directed and genuinely moving as a rites of passage movie. What starts as a freedom adventure becomes pivotal to the direction of the leading men's future life path.

This is Ewan Mcgregor and Chaley Boorman without the 'luvvie factor' or the back up of support of a team.

Wonderful film whether you like motorcycles or not.

Having bought the book recently I waited until I had read it before viewing the DVD and as is always the case the movie paints a different picture to the one that the book conjured up in your mind. Nevertheless, despite subtitles, which distract you somewhat, the DVD took me around South America with the young Che and Alberto in the same emotional and often comical way as the book with landscapes even more sensational than Ernesto's often romantic descriptions in his writings. Those looking for the political content will not be disappointed, notwithstanding that this period of Che's life was before his politically active life and what clearly comes over is his learning of the realities of life for the peasants across the continent; the unjust inequalities of the socio-economic system of the times. One feels the political motivation welling within the young medical student's mind as he shares the experiences of a cruel poverty determined by the selfish greed of the capitalist classes and the ignorance and tolerance of the poor.

The quality of the filming was somewhat mixed as often scenes in the night time are too dark to see what is happening; scenes that would perhaps be pictured better in the mind's eye had the dialogue been in English. In general though, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and what was lacking in quality of the editing was more than compensated for by the quality of the acting and the way in which Che and Alberto's adventures are portrayed. A major criticism I have with the editing is the wonderful pieces that were edited out of the film, which thankfully are included in the DVD's extras. The day at the motor races and the lift they had from a blind trucker were, for me, memorable highlights of the book and it is a great shame they were edited out of the final film.

Students of Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution will learn much about what motivated the young student who became the icon of future generations of students and enjoy a giggle or two along the way as the two friends come to grief a few times on the motorcycle and get into numerous scrapes with some of the people they meet on their travels. Recommended!