Motorcycle Diaries | |
---|---|
Spanish | Diarios de motocicleta |
Directed by | Walter Salles |
Screenplay by | José Rivera |
Based on | The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara |
Produced by | Edgard Tenenbaum Michael Nozik Karen Tenkhoff |
Starring | Gael García Bernal Rodrigo de la Serna Mía Maestro |
Cinematography | Eric Gautier |
Edited by | Daniel Rezende |
Music by | Gustavo Santaolalla |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista International (Latin America) Focus Features (United States) Pathé Distribution (United Kingdom and France) Constantin Film (Germany)[1] |
Release dates | |
Running time | 126 minutes[2] |
Countries | Argentina Brazil United States Chile Peru United Kingdom Germany France |
Languages | Spanish Quechua |
Budget | N/A |
Box office | $57.7 million[1] |
The Motorcycle Diaries (Spanish: Diarios de motocicleta) is a 2004 biographical film about the journey and written memoir of the 23-year-old Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who would several years later become internationally known as the Marxist guerrilla leader and revolutionary leader Che Guevara. The film recounts the 1952 expedition, initially by motorcycle, across South America by Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado. As well as being a road movie, the film is a coming-of-age film; as the adventure, initially centered on youthful hedonism, unfolds, Guevara discovers himself transformed by his observations on the life of the impoverished indigenous peasantry. Through the characters they encounter on their continental trek, Guevara and Granado witness first hand the injustices that the destitute face and are exposed to people and social classes they would have never encountered otherwise. To their surprise, the road presents to them both a genuine and captivating picture of Latin American identity. As a result, the trip also plants the initial seed of radicalization within Guevara, who would later challenge the continent's endemic economic inequalities and political repression.
The screenplay is based primarily on Guevara's trip diary of the same name, with additional context supplied by Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary by Alberto Granado. Guevara is played by Gael García Bernal (who previously played Che in the 2002 miniseries Fidel), and Granado by the Argentine actor Rodrigo de la Serna, who incidentally is a second cousin to the real-life Guevara on his maternal side.[3] Directed by Brazilian director Walter Salles and written by Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera, the film was an international co-production among production companies from Argentina, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile, Peru and France. The film's executive producers were Robert Redford, Paul Webster, and Rebecca Yeldham; the producers were Edgard Tenenbaum, Michael Nozik, and Karen Tenkhoff; and the co-producers were Daniel Burman and Diego Dubcovsky.