The Motorcycle Diaries

In The Motorcycle Diaries, director Walter Salles infuses a modern myth with humanity and dimension. Adapted from the journals of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, this lush, stirring feature depicts that episode in the life of the author when, as a young medical student, he embarked with his friend Dr. Alberto Granado on a cross-country adventure, traversing much of South America and witnessing both great beauty and great suffering. A romantic and a free spirit, but not yet the revolutionary figure later revered and reviled by countless millions, Guevara gamely embarks on a joy ride, only then to be profoundly affected by the human misery and injustice which he encounters. Effectively, he is offered a journey into his own soul, where great questions and sacrifices await him, and a great future beckons. Gael García Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna grace this story with monumental, yet delicately human portrayals as Guevara and Granado, and Salles offers a deeply moving portrait of a conscience at the start of its great blossoming.