The Motorcycle Diaries

[madaboutharry]

I watched this film this morning. It is about Che Guevara's journey through South America with his friend in 1952. It is the story of the experiences that sowed the seeds of his future as a revolutionary. I do not particularly admire Che Guevara, but the film is wonderful.

[av8rdave]

1. It's a great film

Obviously, there is a lot I don't like about Che Gueverra, but the movie is very instructive about what life experiences shape the mind and the ideologies.

[willing dwarf]

2. Motorcycle Diaries was a wonderful film

It was meant to be a free standing look at youth coming of age, but it made me realize that I'd just accepted what I'd heard that Che was a violent thug. Actually I don't know when I ever really was taught about Che Guevera, but there was a sort of "story line" that those of us who grew up in the 70's knew, but didn't understand enough to question.

The film got me very interested in reading more about the fellow and more about South America and Central America. I read as much as I could, including a few very good biographies. -- I loved reading about the early years, the romance of his travels across South America and Central America. The image of a person who feels compelled to act rather than be complicit in the oppression of innocent people was very interesting.

I was with him as he moved through Cuba, and with the start of the communist govt there. But then when it got to the execution of so many people-- that's when I felt like his life began to unravel. -- As an archetypal personality, he was a seeker. Finding and then maintaining the goal required an entirely different set of skills. His skills were about questioning, pushing, questing...

From the time the communist govt got established in Cuba his life became a hall of mirrors, but the history of Cuba too seems like a hall of mirrors from that point onward. They were forced to industrialized by the Soviets, but was that a good idea? Did the Soviets really just hook them in to a gottcha system of debt and dependency to get a foothold in the hemisphere?

Lots of questions, all started for me thanks to that film.

[mackerel]

3. Very good film on many levels but I wouldn't

call it factual by any means.

[madaboutharry]

4. I think I would like to read his book "The Motorcycle Diaries"

The book is a contemporaneous account of that journey. It will be interesting to see how loyal the film was to his actual writings.