The Motorcycle Diaries

Tonight we watched 'The Motorcycle Diaries', a road movie about young Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, before he became a revolutionary. In his last year of medicine, in 1952, he embarked on a motorcycle trip with his buddy Alberto Granado through the heart of South America. This journey, and the injustice he encountered, opened him up to the things to come later, although it's hard to imagine from this movie that he would later side with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The breathtaking music by Gustavo Santaolalla is a perfect match for the monumental landscapes of Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela.

Jonah from Spain already blogged about the most moving scene, when Ernesto swims across the Amazon to spend his birthday with the lepers, so I will just refer to his blog.

Comments

[Isaac]

I love this movie! :D

[haso]

I also saw the movie a few months ago. It´s really a great movie. And it makes us understand a lot more about the dymanics that stood behing many of the revolutionary movements of past decades.
If you find it hard to imagine, "that he would later side with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro", I would add, it is also hard to imagine, that the former revolutionary Fidel Castro would later side with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, even under one skin. These guys, I suppose, were sincere in siding with the poor, but never found an answer on how to cope with revolutionary success without the means to achieve the revolutionary goals. As heroic as their fight for justice was, as tragic was their story after they got the power. It is easier to fight injustice, than to establish justice.
When Che recognized this, he moved on to Bolivia for another revolution. As far as I know, he could not bear to live in post-revolutionary Cuba. Again he longed for the uncompromized innocence of taking a stand against oppression and for the oppressed.
His life still puts some questions that are hard to be answered.