The Motorcycle Diaries
The Motorcycles Diaries is a very well acted, beautifully photographed piece of work. It is also as stupidly empty of real insight into the man who would become Che Guevara as the communist ideals he eventually adopted are empty of common sense. The film does a fine job of explaining how the poverty and injustice he encountered along his journey could lead to his social idealism and motivate him to try and make a difference. But one throwaway line in the middle of the film ("A revolution without guns? It won't work.") can't account for how a young man portrayed by the film as a saint turned into a military leader with a dubious human rights record of his own. At its roots, The Motorcycles Diaries is basically a buddy picture, and that's the only level at which it really works. If these had just been two fictional guys traveling across the continent, it could have been heartwarming coming-of-age story; but the looming specter of who this man really was turns the movie into the same kind of moral vacuum it's trying to preach against.
- July 23, 2005
DVD Extras
There's actually quite a bit here, including deleted scenes, an interview with writer Alberto Granado, a making-of featurette, and separate interviews with Gael García Bernal and the film's composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. Unfortunately, the special features lack the same thing the film lacked—real in-depth information about Che Guevara.