The Motorcycle Diaries Details

It started as a fun road trip across Latin America for two Argentine friends in 1952, but the social struggles and injustices witnessed en route awakened their political consciousness — and in the case of Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna sealed his future as a revolutionary icon. Based on the memoirs of Guevara (Gael García Bernal) and his companion Alberto Granado (played by Che's real-life cousin Rodrigo de la Serna), Central Station director Walter Salles's remarkably involving biography humanises Che, portraying the man rather than a propagandist myth. By turns funny (witness the duo's pick-up lines), lyrical (the gorgeously photographed locations in Argentina, Chile and Peru) and moving (their ultimate destination, the leper colony), Salles's film is astonishing in its emotional and physical scope. This inspiring story is further enhanced by Bernal's intensely charismatic performance as the young idealist, and the dynamic screen chemistry between him and de la Serna.

High spirited, well observed road movie about a man who had yet to become the revolutionary Che Guevara, though it does concern itself with his social and political education through encounters with poverty and exploitation on his travels.