Monday, January 18, 2016

MovieNotes: The Motorcycle Diaries

Title: The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta) (IMDB)
*ing: Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna
Language: Spanish
Director: Walter Salles
Genre: Biography, Journey

Basic Premise
It narrates the journey made by Ernesto "Che" Guevara when he was a medical student alongwith his friend Alberto and how the journey shaped his life.

MovieNotes
"This isn't a tale of heroic feats. It's about two lives running parallel for a while, with common aspirations and similar dreams"

Thus begins the tale of an epic journey. A journey which sowed the seeds of a revolution into the mind of a medical student. A student who would go on to become one of the most famous revolutionaries of the modern times. 

The move begins on a light-hearted vein with Alberto and Ernesto commencing their trip across the length of South America. They say their farewells and have their little funny adventures on their motorcycle "The Mighty One". However as the journey progresses, the mood of the film changes from fun to seriousness. Their encounters with the different folks awakens them to hardships of the world. The fun-seeking youth who are travelling for the sake of travelling run into people suffering all kinds of hardships and being exploited by those around. The economic inequalities and the sufferings he witnesses makes Ernesto believe that only a revolution (and an armed one) can truly bring about justice.

The movie is a brilliant depiction of the journey and not just in the physical sense. It is more a  story of the transformation within the minds. The sale of the motorcycle half-way through the tale provides an inflexion point in the story from where the movie adopts a more serious tone with the focus shifting from the tale of Alberto and Ernesto to the sufferings of the people they meet. The movie does not tell of any heroic feats but gives an inkling of the the revolution about to come. 

It is one those rare movies which make you think about the injustices around you. 

Rating - 9/10. A tale which begins on a light-hearted note but progresses into something far more serious without losing pace and grip.

Previously on MovieNotes - 12 Years A Slave

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