The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Directed By: Walter Salles
Starring: Gael García Bernal and Rodrigo De la Serna
It is hard to review The Motorcycle Diaries without considering the content of the film and the way it was received in America. That’s okay though: art is born of the times and cultures that it comes from, and we don’t always have to try and divorce the two. When it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, it was awarded a standing ovation by the audience, whose cheering, I believe, was not just based on the cinematography and acting, but “Che” Guevara, the subject of the film.
It is easy to sum up The Motorcycle Diaries:The film is extremely strong in the areas of directing, acting, cinematography and soundtrack. The filmmakers firmly position us in 1950s South America. However, it is poor on plot direction and a reason for… well… being.
The question inevitably comes up: Why did I just watch this movie? I was left feeling as if I was shown a romanticized “portrait of youth” propaganda film in Cuba or Venezuela (where the president drives his own jeep in the motorcade, complete with Sean Penn in the passenger seat and a photo of Che held up like a banner). It is a well made, well directed propaganda film that I imagine being shown to a peasant audience in a communist country’s village town-hall meeting. Peasants who are supposed to feel butterflies about how much this leader “loved the common man.”
Most interesting is the end of the movie, where, as an epilogue, we are presented with changing images of a dozen or so South American peasants staring intently at the camera, followed by the following text segment (as translated in the English version of the film):
“It took 8 years for Ernesto [Che] and Alberto [his friend] to meet again. In 1960 Granado [the same friend] was invited to live and work in Cuba. The invitation came from his old friend Fuser [another of Che's nicknames], now “Commondante” Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the most prominent and inspiring leaders of the Cuban Revolution. Che went on to fight for his ideals in the Congo and Bolivia where he was captured, and with the support of the CIA, murdered in October, 1967.”
The only thought that occurs to me is this: are these intense looking peasants supposed to be the peasants Che fought for, or are they supposed to represent the hundreds of peasants he murdered in his well-documented death camp in Cuba. That was during the period when he was “One of the most prominent and inspiring leaders of the Cuban Revolution-” in other words, one of Fidel Castro’s many cronies who killed anyone who disagreed with them, got in their way, or inconvenienced them in general. I would challenge executive producer Robert Redford to find some Cubans in Miami and ask them what they think of Che Guevara. Please, don’t feed me this romanticized non-sense about Che being a fighter for the people… he was a cold-blooded killer of hundreds. Which makes the part about him being “murdered by the CIA” even more funny. Let’s read what José Vilasuso (a lawyer who helped Che cook up fudged indictments to justify the execution of Cuban peasants) writes about Che:
“The statements of the investigating officer constituted irrefutable proof of wrongdoing. The defense lawyer simply admitted the accusations[...]
This Appeals Tribunal never decided in favor of the appeal. It simply confirmed the sentences[...]
The executions took place in the early morning hours. Once sentence was passed, the relatives and friends exploded in horrible cries, supplications of pity for their children, their husbands[...]More than one [victim] died shouting :”I am innocent[...]”
To witness such a butchery was a trauma that will accompany me to my grave and it is my mission to let this be known[...]
Executions took place from Monday to Saturday, and each day about one to seven prisoners were executed, sometimes more. Death sentence cases had a blanket authorization of Fidel, Raul and Che, and were decided by the Tribunal or by the Communist Party. Each member of the firing squad got fifteen pesos per execution. The officers got twenty five.”
15 Pesos per execution? Sounds like good ol’ sub-contract capitalism. I’m still rewinding The Motorcycle Diaries to find the part where Che writes in his beloved journal how many pesos should be paid out to a murderer.
“Don’t delay these trials. This is a revolution, the proofs are secondary. We have to proceed by conviction.”
-My favorite Che Guevara quote, which you won’t find in any Rage Against the Machine CD artwork. This is a documented chastisement of those who tried to slow down his fake trials with contradictory arguments and proof.