As if the prospect of two weeks of gripping film watching isnt enough to keep me going, we ventured off tonight to catch The Motorcycle Diaries.
The film by director Walter Salles is an adaptation of a journal written by Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal) when he was 23 years old. He and his friend, Alberto Granado (de la Serna) are typical college students who, seeking fun and adventure before graduation, decide to travel across Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Peru in order to do their medical residency at a leper colony.
Beginning as a buddy/road movie in which Ernesto and Alberto are looking for chicks, fun and adventure before they must grow up and have a more serious life. As is said in the film narration by Che, it's about "two lives running parallel for a while." The two best friends start off with the same goals and aspirations, but by the time the film is over, it's clear what each man's destiny has become - Che will become the revolutionary, Alberto the practical doctor working in the system in Cuba.
The road / buddy movie is a little different from the standard - its in English and is more about the evolution of political and social thought, than sexual exploration and growth. The cinematography is stunning - Latin America looks amazing. But I sat wondering whether this was going to be an endless series of shots of a motorcycle tavelling through vast vistas punctuated by occassional stops at key socially relevant points (a rapacious multinational owned mine; Machu Picchu, a leper colony) or necessitated by bike crashes. There really was little plot and nothing really to surprise or astound. The politics were a little heavy and the character development was trite.
Overall I was disappointed by this film as a film, but it did get me thinking at the wasted opportunity that America has had on this continent. Even in its own back yard the USA has not understood what it takes to create a just and liberal society. It has not learned from its own revolution, and has left Latin America bereft, saddled with corrupt dictatorships and harsh in-equality.
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