Motorbike junkie. Yeah, thats me. It has always been a dream to drive away by myself through lonely roads with the wind blowing in my face and my rucksack on my back.
That is what drew me to this movie. A friend had recommended this as a good example of modern Latin American movie making. That was good enough to get me started, but there was a nagging suspicion in the back of my mind that I had heard this title somewhere. Then like an answer to a trivia question, it dawned on me. Thats right, Che Guevara’s auto-biography about his travels through Latin America had the same title!
Was I going to spend some 2-3 hours watching some Commie indoctrination?! A lifetime spent with a dejected Commie(me’s Dad) told me that any talk of Communism was sure to end in trouble for me.
All the same, I resolved to watch it. And my oh my, did I do the right thing.
The movie walked down a very narrow path, any direction either way would have ruined the effect. Would the director dwell more on Che’s political beliefs and turn it into a typical rabble rousing movie or would he skim over the controversies and trivialise the movie?
Well, in my opinion, the director has achieved the right balance.
The movie is about the journey that a young doctor Ernesto Fuser Guevara made on a motorcycle across Latin America with his friend Alberto Granado. We see two youngsters out to have some fun and to enjoy life as it comes.
And slowly things start to open up. Argentinians are not very popular in other parts of Latin America(atleast thats what my Brazilian friend says.;-). So they have to endure some trouble in certain towns, but in all other places they have a warm reception.
As they travel, they see the beauty of the Americas. The camera work here is splendid, effectively making us feel as if we are in each and every frame. Man, those places look awesome. Some day, I will go to these places.
Well, to our young Fuser(as he is affectionately called by his friend), some greater truth starts staring him in his face. The poverty of the Americas. How centuries of oppression under the imperialists and later under their fellow countrymen has driven large parts of the country to rags.
Some of the scenes are spell-binding. In the middle of nowhere, our friends meet a family who are moving in search of work and food. Their lonely camplight conversation and the long silence after that frame is soulful.
Another scene had many hungry Indians wait at the mining station hoping against hope to be picked for a job at the mines. As one after the other, ’lucky’ blokes were getting picked(for potentially back-breaking work), others were waiting on - hope filled in their lifeless eyes. A job however difficult and killing would save their families.
What I liked about this movie are that scenes like these showed the facts as they were without romanticising Communism or trying to certify that Che was right in his choice. I can quite easily imagine what would have happened by now in one of the communist flag-waving movies that were the staple in India during the 80s. Lots of flag-waving and tearing denunciations no doubt.!
We can all sense that something is happening to young Fuser. The two doctors then go on to work with an acclaimed doctor at the San Pablo leprosy camp. To me that was the turning point of the movie. Although the nuns who form the nursing cadre are dedicated, they are religious and live along with the doctors on the other side of the river, away from the lepers who live on the opposite banks.
And then THE SCENE. In a piece I watched over and over again, on their last night at the leprosy camp, the asthmatic Fuser, swims across the mighty Amazon to the lepers camp, in order to spend his last night with them.
*This was a magical scene.** You could almost feel that this was Fuser’s Rubicon to cross. That night, along with the swollen Amazon, he stepped over some other invisible line and moved firmly from the camp of the haves to the have-nots. It is then that it strikes us that Fuser has grown up and become Che.
All actors in this movie were new to me and I felt that every one of them have done a great job. The friendship between Granado and Fuser was very well brought out. You could almost feel the near-maternal love that Granado had for Fuser.
That for you my friends, is my take on The Motorcycle Diaries. Some parts of this movie are so beautiful, they could be used by the Tourism departments of their respective countries, while others are immensely thought-provoking and surprisingly apolitical.
On the whole, this is a rare movie that rates a 4.5/5 rating from me.
Kudos