The Motorcycle Diaries (DVD)

At the beginning of 1952, 29-year-old Alberto Granado and 23-year-old Ernesto Guevara “Fuser” de la Serna set out on a planned Odyssey the length and breadth of Latin America, starting in their beloved Argentina and taking in Chile, Peru and Colombia before reaching their projected destination at the northernmost point of Venezuela. On this touching and romantic (in the Dumas sense of the word) journey, the twinkling-eyed biochemist and his young almost qualified doctor friend, the man who would be “Che”, set out to learn all about the America they lived with but failed to understand… For The Motorcycle Diaries, director Walter Salles drew on two books, the ...  Read the complete review

Ernesto "Che" Guevara is a character on whom opinion is fiercely divided. He is seen, on the one hand, as a freedom-fighting hero who, despite a debilitating illness and the "burden" of a middle-class up-bringing, never lost sight of his goals, dedicating his adult life to fighting imperialism and creating a more just society, expecially in countries that had been exploited by the United States. Others see him as nothing more than a terrorist - someone thirsty for adventure, a "gun-for-hire" moving from country to country wherever a guerilla movement wanted him to whip up their men. The "Motorcycle Diaries" is an ...  Read the complete review

I bought this film from HMV for £5, having not yet seen it but having heard good things about it when it was released. Always a bit of a gamble, buying films you haven't seen, but having watched it last night I'm very glad I did, as I certainly expect to watch it again. The film is subtitled, which I don't mind at all and, I must admit, I do get frustrated with people who won't give subtitled films a chance. A film like this deserves your undivided attention anyway, and subtitles are only a problem* if you're trying to "watch" a film while doing other things. (*Not including of course people with sight problems etc etc but you knew ...  Read the complete review

Although I haven't read the book upon which this film is based, I do want to go and find now, having seen the film. Some great acting, breathtaking scenery and interesting plot make this one of the top films on my list- and the starring role of the sexy Gael Garcia Bernal may even put it at number one! It's interesting to watch a film about Ernesto 'Che' Guevara before he became the stern-looking revolutionary figure of his later years, and if this is anything to go by, then I can certainly see how his ideas were probably formed. Set in 1952, at a time of political instability across Latin America, the young Che, who's still at university training ...  Read the complete review

"Motorcycle Diaries" is one of those highly-respected movies, and it was nominated for many awards (and won the BAFTA for best foreign language film, as well as prizes at Cannes), though finally only won an Oscar for the music. It's one of those movies that has a bit of history, a bit of politics, and also plenty of emotion - humour/pathos/romance - without being too sentimental. Walter Salles is the director - responsible for this year's "Dark Water", quite a different genre and a different thing altogether. Che Guevara - whose name and whose image everyone knows - his face appears on many a bedsit wall, many a T-shirt. Even today, ...  Read the complete review