The motorcycle diaries
Last night I watched the movie 'The motorcycle diaries', a biographical account of Che Guevara's journey across the continent of South America with his friend Alberto Granada. Guevara was 23 at the time and chronicled his experiences on the ambitiously planned 8000-kilometres-in-8-months journey on a Notron 500 motorcycle in a diary which was later published as a book. Che, a medical student, and his friend Granado, a biochemist, were "two lives running parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams." [1] who set out on their journey with hopes of gaining knowledge and freedom. The movie, directed by Brazilian director Walter Salles, depicts Che as a young idealist who is pained to see the suffering of the common man, the Indians, and the communists, and rebels against structures and hierarchy. Che and Granado volunteer at a leprosy hospital where Che is depicted as a healer who treats the lepers with humanity and respect and swims across the mighty Amazon to spend his birthday among them.
Due to the wonderful efforts of screenplay writer Jose Rivera, cinematographer Eric Gautier, and score-writer Gustavo Santaolalla, it is hard to not idolize Che when you watch this movie. And that was my first reaction to the movie, a warm and fuzzy feeling towards the idealistic and humane Che at 23. Being unfamiliar with Latin-American history and politics, I was eager to read others' reaction to the movie and scoured the Internet for reviews. I found an article on Slate.com by the political writer Paul Berman which is neither warm nor fuzzy. Berman sees Che as a totalitarian who "achieved nothing" by his hate-and-kill-the-enemy method of warfare and criticizes the glorification of Che in the movie. According to Berman, Che succeeded in enlisting the cult following of a large number of Latin American youth who quit college and started guerrilla insurgencies and achieved nothing but death.
I guess the real reason that the movie made an impact on me was the boldness with which Che and Granada push themselves out of their comfortable upper-middle-class existence to indulge the wanderlust in themselves. That struck a note with me because I wish I could do something like that. I am a rebellious person by nature but a cautious person by upbringing. I live by the rules of society, drive at the speed limit, wear conventional clothes, and follow a respectable career path because these values were inculcated in me via my upbringing. But I also itch to take a semester off to travel, drive at 90mph just to see if my Focus can handle it, give up the PhD and live a bohemian life a-la-Rent (the musical), and tell my professors that they are neither bright nor good mentors. I rebelled in high school for a while against strict rules imposed by the Convent I attended and the tyranny of bad teachers who demanded respect because they could not command it. But soon I realised that to become successful in life I needed good grades and the support of my peers. So I conformed, and deep inside I hate that about myself.
So that is what watching 'the motorcycles diaries' made me think about. Not about the glory of Che but about the spirit of man that goes against convention and takes on an adventure. Someday I will quit this PhD and take up film school or a month off to travel Europe as I have planning to. I'm young and the rebellion inside me hasn't died out completely. At least I hope not.
[1] The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara, accessible online at the Che Guevara Archives
Due to the wonderful efforts of screenplay writer Jose Rivera, cinematographer Eric Gautier, and score-writer Gustavo Santaolalla, it is hard to not idolize Che when you watch this movie. And that was my first reaction to the movie, a warm and fuzzy feeling towards the idealistic and humane Che at 23. Being unfamiliar with Latin-American history and politics, I was eager to read others' reaction to the movie and scoured the Internet for reviews. I found an article on Slate.com by the political writer Paul Berman which is neither warm nor fuzzy. Berman sees Che as a totalitarian who "achieved nothing" by his hate-and-kill-the-enemy method of warfare and criticizes the glorification of Che in the movie. According to Berman, Che succeeded in enlisting the cult following of a large number of Latin American youth who quit college and started guerrilla insurgencies and achieved nothing but death.
I guess the real reason that the movie made an impact on me was the boldness with which Che and Granada push themselves out of their comfortable upper-middle-class existence to indulge the wanderlust in themselves. That struck a note with me because I wish I could do something like that. I am a rebellious person by nature but a cautious person by upbringing. I live by the rules of society, drive at the speed limit, wear conventional clothes, and follow a respectable career path because these values were inculcated in me via my upbringing. But I also itch to take a semester off to travel, drive at 90mph just to see if my Focus can handle it, give up the PhD and live a bohemian life a-la-Rent (the musical), and tell my professors that they are neither bright nor good mentors. I rebelled in high school for a while against strict rules imposed by the Convent I attended and the tyranny of bad teachers who demanded respect because they could not command it. But soon I realised that to become successful in life I needed good grades and the support of my peers. So I conformed, and deep inside I hate that about myself.
So that is what watching 'the motorcycles diaries' made me think about. Not about the glory of Che but about the spirit of man that goes against convention and takes on an adventure. Someday I will quit this PhD and take up film school or a month off to travel Europe as I have planning to. I'm young and the rebellion inside me hasn't died out completely. At least I hope not.
[1] The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara, accessible online at the Che Guevara Archives
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