The Motorcycle Diaries is a 2004 movie made in Brazil about a Cuban-Argentinian connection that would eventually go down in history. It was a hugely successful movie both at the box office and critically as it played all over the world to huge audiences. Even though the movie is presented in Spanish it made a great deal of money here in the United States and it was even nominated for a best writing Oscar at the 2005 Academy Awards. It did wind up winning an Oscar for best original song and those two nominations, with the one win, speak to how successful of an international cross over hit The Motorcycle Diaries was. Each and every character is given three dimensions by director Walter Salles and the movie becomes as much a catalog of the beautiful scenery in South America as it is a tale of two men on a motorcycle. Walter Salles is known for the life and vivid images he gives his movies and in his talents were allowed to be on full display in The Motorcycle Diaries. The screenplay was written by Jose Rivera but it was adapted from the actual diaries of the men involved which makes The Motorcycle Diaries as much of a true story as any other non-fiction movie but what makes this movie truly unique is the transformation it graphically displays of one of the most violent men in modern history.

The Motorcycle Diaries is about two men named Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado. Ernesto is played by Gael Garcia Bernal and Alberto is played by Rodrigo De la Serna. The men are two well to do college students studying biology and various disciplines in medicine. They decide that they are going to get on a motorcycle and see South America as they make their way to their newest studies and take in the sights and meet the people as they make their way. Along the way they make many friends but they also see a lot of poverty and suffering that begins to take an effect on Ernesto. They wind up in a leper colony and they offer their services as medical assistants for 3 weeks to help those that tend to the lepers. As time goes by they become good friends with not only the medical staff at the leper colony but also the lepers themselves. The feeling of shame forced upon these people by the outside world along with the feeling of physical pain that comes with their condition has a profound effect on both boys. In the end they wind up taking different paths in life and Ernesto strays away from medical studies and gets directly involved in what he sees as the real way to free people from their suffering, revolution.

Ernesto Guevara winds up becoming Che Guevara who winds up being known as one of the foremost revolutionaries in the modern world. He helps Fidel Castro win his communist revolution in Cuba and attempts to spread communism all over the world through violent revolution. In 1967 he was captured and executed in Bolivia after a failed attempt at revolution in that country. But in The Motorcycle Diaries you can begin to see the transformation of Che Guevara from medical student to violent revolutionary. It all becomes very real when you remember that The Motorcycle Diaries was co-written by Che Guevara himself.