The Motorcycle Diaries
Focus Features | Release Date: September 24, 2004
7.6
USER SCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 70 Ratings
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57
Mixed:
9
Negative:
4
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User Reviews

User scoreBy dateMost helpful
6
AlbertJun 9, 2006
Just a correct road movie, with beautiful photography and good acting. Unfortunately it lacks a litle bit more depth. Guevara's moral coming of age is determined by too few episodes. "How much unjustice", he claims when he's about Just a correct road movie, with beautiful photography and good acting. Unfortunately it lacks a litle bit more depth. Guevara's moral coming of age is determined by too few episodes. "How much unjustice", he claims when he's about to return to Argentina. And anyone who knows South America, and anyone who has read his diaries, knows he met quite a lot more reasons to become conscious about what was/is happening in the continent. Anyway. I would like to make just one coment to a couple of the site users : I don't know what you are taught in your History classes in the USA, but to consider Che Guevara a mass murderer reveals either an absolute abscence of knowledge on the subject, or an absolute abscence of knowledge of the english language.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
10
FazilM.Mar 20, 2006
Possibly Gael Garcia's best performance till date. The film is seamless and very heartening at times. Also to be praised is Gustavo Santaolalla's impeccable compositions for the move.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
9
SamX.May 1, 2006
Stunning visual style and reminiscient of Jack Kerouac on the road. Those who rate this film poorly are probably just critics of el Che, and their opinions of the man and legend is reflected in the scores, rather than the content of the film itself.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
10
StephenS.Sep 10, 2005
Combine beautiful photography and powerful, natural acting with terrific writing, and you have Motorcycle Diaries. For those who criticize the movie as creating a false portrait of a man who would later advocate violent revolution, have they Combine beautiful photography and powerful, natural acting with terrific writing, and you have Motorcycle Diaries. For those who criticize the movie as creating a false portrait of a man who would later advocate violent revolution, have they so little imagination that they are unable to comprehend how a young person who goes off to discover the world could legitimately grow from a sheltered son of privilege into a revolutionary, given the conditions of the world? One's politics are generally formed by your life experiences, and for most U.S. citizens, their experience is standardized television/mall living, with few ever traveling out of their racial ghetto, much less out of the U.S. Whatever else a viewer might get from the film, would that it might be an interest in making his or her own journey of discovery--to places that no one in the family has ever visited. Go for six months. See if you, like Ernesto/Che aren't changed. Things don't happen for no reason at all, my fellow citizens.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
10
MathewSep 1, 2005
I admit it. I am biased. Almost thirty years ago I spent several years working in South America, a quarter century after Ché blew through those same places. This movie gets so many of the small things about the cultures perfectly I admit it. I am biased. Almost thirty years ago I spent several years working in South America, a quarter century after Ché blew through those same places. This movie gets so many of the small things about the cultures perfectly correct that it comes as no surprise that non-actors were used in these scenes. It is as if you are making the road trip too and that is, indeed, the strength of this movie. The quiet comraderie of the two principles is inviting. Their journey is quixotic, amusing, romantic and not a little foolhardy, but you'd die to be doing it, too! Critics have claimed that by failing to tackle the reality of Ché's future the film does a disservice to the realities of his past. I would say that the film shows the blank slate of youth filling with experiential awareness and hinting at how those experiences might mix with the character's inherent tendencies. The future is not yet known, but the possibilities are being outlined. I think that it is done very, very well.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
9
AjithF.Jun 3, 2006
The moie is so touching an realistic.....the way they have shown an innocent boy become a revolutionary is sooo well directed......an excellent movie.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
10
EduardoA.Sep 17, 2005
(Sorry if my english is bad). It is simply the best movie I've ever seen, i always admired "Che" Guevara because of his intelligence and his principles, his vision, the way that he matured, until becoming the most unselfish being in the (Sorry if my english is bad). It is simply the best movie I've ever seen, i always admired "Che" Guevara because of his intelligence and his principles, his vision, the way that he matured, until becoming the most unselfish being in the world, and I think this movie reflects all that, and it does in a way that only non-commercial director's and these kind of actors (famous in south america) can.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
7
tonyGreenJul 1, 2011
A road movie with a little more substance than most. The countryside is beautifully shot, and feels totally true to the period. Political without being moralising. Well worth a watch
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7
MauroPTrianoDec 22, 2013
Well crafted and acted but it is not really special, the story is ambitious but the characters don't develop an interesting relationship and it just reach the point of showing an inspired young "Che". Gael García Bernal's work should be mentioned.
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7
SrPepeSep 5, 2018
Si bien llega un momento en el que la película puede parecer bastante lenta, es muy interesante ver la historia atrás de un personaje tan controvertido e histórico por lo menos en la historia de Latinoamérica.
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5
amheretojudgeNov 21, 2018
better late than never..

The Motorcycle Diaries Salles's two wheeler ride may be uncomfortable but it is a success on reaching its destination, maybe not on time, but better late than never. Ticking for two hours, the journey does getbetter late than never..

The Motorcycle Diaries

Salles's two wheeler ride may be uncomfortable but it is a success on reaching its destination, maybe not on time, but better late than never. Ticking for two hours, the journey does get hectic. But just as such long trip consists, it is brimmed with essential stops that juices up the track if it gets dry and weary. The concept calls for the storyline to be a series of different events and stops, but the performance holds you on your seat and gives you enough reason to stay till the last station arrives. As much as adaptive and layered the narration is, it isn't sharp, it doesn't speak to you a lot.

You have to search for it, nothing is served up front in here which is often good but only if it teases you to look for it and keep things intriguing. The rich cultures, beautiful live locations, real earthiness and a grounded dusty or cold roads does travel to you and on that tour-guide note it is a triumph. Aforementioned, the performance is what the feature thrives on. The passion wearing down and rebirthing itself from the ashes like a phoenix, Bernal is the apt companion to have for this trip. He is not confident, he is reserved, simple and more importantly makes mistake; a non provocative three dimensional character.

Serna as his supporting character holds onto his part convincingly. This over thought out philosophical medicine is admirable but certainly not cinematic enough to balance the husky and crispy bits alongside. The characteristics of the protagonist keeps surprising you throughout the course, his ideologies, his stubborn nature, everything opens big arms for the audience. The Motorcycle Diaries is like a ride and a diary-writing-habit, it can be sweat inducing but in the end it's worth every drop of it.… Expand
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9
FilipeNetoSep 12, 2021
I decided to watch this film with some fear of finding just one piece of socialist or communist propaganda. For my happiness, the register and the emphasis are much more intimate, biographical and human than, properly speaking, political. InI decided to watch this film with some fear of finding just one piece of socialist or communist propaganda. For my happiness, the register and the emphasis are much more intimate, biographical and human than, properly speaking, political. In fact, if we didn't know the figure of Ernesto "Che" Guevara so well, and what he will come to be and represent, the film would not help us much to understand or know much more.

The film is the result of the cinematographic adaptation of two books by Ernesto Guevara ("Notes from Travel") and by Alberto Granado ("With Che across South America"), who are the protagonists of the film. It's a film told in the first person, and it tells us about the great trip on a motorbike that the two friends and medical colleagues decided to make throughout the various countries of South America that speak the Spanish language, and in which Guevara will feel like increasingly interested in helping and defending the poorest and weakest in society.

The script is much better than I expected and focuses on the trip made and how the same trip affects and changes the personalities of the two companions, particularly Guevara's. The friendship between both protagonists is solid enough to never be compromised by any obstacles or setbacks, and the tribulations they both go through can be really comical and give the film a lighter tone than expected. The film is not politically charged, and the effort to depoliticize it may have gone beyond what is necessary: in fact, the contact Guevara has with the poor and weakest in society is reduced to a set of innocuous testimonies that, I confess, seem superficial to me.

Skillfully directed by the Brazilian Walter Salles, the film features excellent performances by Gael Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna, two Hispanic actors whom I naturally didn't know, but who I enjoyed watching work. Both are excellent when acting together and collaborate very fruitfully, with the first one trying to avoid losing his character's joviality at the expense of a premature social and political conscience, and the latter refusing to be just the playful friend of a more important character.

Technically, it's exquisite and full of details, starting immediately with an attentive and careful cinematography that knows how to make each scene visually immersive and beautiful without taking the focus from the essentials. The careful choice of filming locations contributes with an additional beauty, in a true tour of the most scenic places in Latin America. The entire setting, costumes and props are good and fit the chronology in which all the events take place. I did not observe major problems of anachrony or lack of historical rigor. The music is quite good, but it doesn't stand out particularly. Finally, a brief note of praise for the use of Castilian as a language, to the detriment of the commercially better option for the English language, which would eventually sell the film more easily but bring with it a sense of unpleasant artificiality.… Expand
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7
hamidgoodarziMay 3, 2023
The film deals exactly with the point of departure of "Ernesto Che Guevara". This biography / road movie can be called a quasi-documentary. The journey of two friends and two lives with common dreams in Latin America and the film shows a realThe film deals exactly with the point of departure of "Ernesto Che Guevara". This biography / road movie can be called a quasi-documentary. The journey of two friends and two lives with common dreams in Latin America and the film shows a real picture of these lands. The film becomes very deep and powerful in the second half and tends more towards the documentary structure. In one of the dialogues at the beginning of the movie, Ernesto's friend says that if there is no motorcycle, we should go on foot. Ernesto says better because then we see better and more people. Right from the middle of the movie, when the motorcycle is no longer useful due to its problems and being scrap, and they continue on foot, it becomes a journey to the depth of belief and changes both friends. The film follows life during the journey. And in the hands and curved lines of people's faces, there is a longing for life. The credits at the end of the movie are wonderful.… Expand
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