There probably should be more foreign language movies on my list.  I have seen a ton that I really like, but I think that I am such a slow reader that it hinders my experience a little bit.  Also, I am about to go back and watch and re-watch some of the classics.   I’ve seen most of the major Bergman and Kurosawa movies, but I haven’t seen enough of Fellini and Truffaut. Anyway, there are a few that did make my list and the funny thing is two of them are from South America.  I don’t know why that’s funny; maybe it’s because I was just name dropping directors that movie snobs name drop from the other side of one of the ponds.

The Motorcycle Diaries is the story of a road trip Ernesto Guevara (before he became Che) goes on with his friend Alberto from Argentina to Peru in the early 1950’s.  What was initially supposed to be a wild trip for the two young med school students to sew their oats became a time of realization and self exploration, most notably for Guevara.  Along the journey they see poverty and oppressive governments along South America and this according to the actual diaries in which the film was based; is what would turn Ernesto Guevara in to Ernesto Che Guevara.

The film was shot in many of the actual locations and the scenery is magnificent.  It gives you the opportunity to see what the two young men saw and why it may have changed them.  On the surface, this is not a whole lot more than a coming of age road movie.  The director Walter Salles does a good job in keeping it that way.  This isn’t supposed to be about the world famous, polarizing revolutionary who some consider brutal and others consider a hero.  It’s the story of what may have caused a privileged young medical studant to turn in to this revolutionary.  Gael Garcia Bernal plays Guevara with a sweetness and sensitivity that may not seem to be in character with whom he became, but that’s the point.  I have always been curious about the back story of famous and historical people and maybe that’s why I was so taken by this movie.  This would be a great rental for anyone interested in the history of this man or anyone interested in a truly human story.