Che Guevara The Motorcycle Diaries Essay

There is a sense of responsibility when it comes to adapting a novel into a film, especially if it is a personal diary of one of the most important people in Cuba’s history. Regardless of the content, a director and screenwriter must take in consideration the way that they are portraying a true story and how they accurate they are. If they stray too far away from the source material, the film becomes a fiction and unreliable. In Walter Salles’s case with his 2004 biopic about Ernesto “Che” Guevara the Motorcycle Diaries, he chooses to tell it exactly how Guevara did, giving the film a better sense of realism that the book may have clearly had. Before Ernesto was known as “Che”, he was just another medical student looking to travel South America by any means necessary. This part of Ernesto’s life is what is included in the novel, which makes for a very shaky diary type feel. While all the details are included along the trip, you don’t get to personally see what is going on. The film gives you this opportunity, showing you the rawest of details from Guevara’s diary, allowing you to see for yourself the horrors that made him into “Che”.
What is the most interesting
A great biopic is as much about the story as it is about the central character; otherwise the film just isn’t that interesting. Walter Salles took a novel and turned into a visual that only opened our mind to the revolution of “Che” before he led Cuba’s revolution. Instead of just retelling a story, Salles took the source material and brought out the intense detail that was only implied in text. The Motorcycle Diaries isn’t a perfect film, but it gets everything right in terms of being a great biopic. It is unbiased, accurate in its setting and most importantly: reliable. Besides being a great biopic, it functions as an interesting road movie that brings the experiences of a revolutionist to life, without slipping into the areas of