The film:
Original title: The Motorcycle Diaries
Genre: Drama
Duration: 128 min.
Release date (EUA): 2004
Official Site: www.motorcyclediaries.net
Studio: Southfork Pictures / FilmFour / Tu Vais Voir
Productions / Senator
Film Produktion GmbH
Distribution: Buena Vista International
Director: Walter Salles
Script: Jose Rivera, based on the books of Che Guevara and Alberto Granado
Producers: Michael Nozik, Edgard Tenenbaum, & Karen Tenkhoff
Cinematography: Eric Gautier
Production Design: Carlos Conti
Art Direction: Laurent Ott
Costume Design: Beatriz de Benedetto & Marisa Urruti
Editing: Daniel Rezende
If You Haven't Yet Seen the Film;
I don't think that reading this (rather general) summary will reduce the pleasure of seeing the film, because the images of South America and its population are what show the film's soul.
The Summary:
Ernesto Guevara, in 1952, lacking very little to receive his
medical degree, decides to travel through South America with his faithful friend, the biochemist Alberto Granado, and a motorcycle. The places they go reveal peoples with strong, harrowing faces and suffering in their gaze. Ernesto is always in solidarity with them and demonstrates a great will to change that which is wrong.
The two friends, in sight of the most famous ruins of Inca Empire, after having witnessed the degradation of this civilization's descendants along the way, feel the destructiveness of Spanish gunpowder.
In the last part of their travels, they stay in a leper colony and revolutionize the place. In the clinic, there was an unnecessary separation of the sick and the healthy; with his honesty and kindness Ernesto is able to improve the life of everyone there. When the friends are ready to leave, they say farewell, and Ernesto sees that he has gained the sincere love of these people.
My commentary:
It's not such an uncommon story, but still, this is an excellent film, because through it one can understand how Che Guevara was born, inside of a simple and morally strong person who decided to live for that which he believed to be greatest: justice.
Awards:
- It received a nomination for the
Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.
- It received 7 nominations for
BAFTA, in the following categories: Best Film, Best Foreign Film, Best Actor (Gael García Bernal), Best Supporting Actor (Rodrigo de la Serna), Best Soundtrack, Best
Cinematography, and Best Adapted Script.
- It received 3 nominations for the
Independent Spirit Awards, in the categories of Best Director, Best Debut Performance, (Rodrigo de la Serna) and Best
Cinematography.
- It received a nomination for the
European Film Award for Best Non-European Film.
- It received an nomination for the
Goya for Adapted Script.
- It won the Ecumenical Prize of the Jury, at the
Festival of Cannes.
- It won the Prize of the Public, at the
Festival of San Sebástian.