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The Motorcycle Diaries (Widescreen Edition) |  | Director: Walter Salles
Actors: Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo De la Serna, Mercedes Morán, Jean Pierre Noher, Lucas Oro
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.98
Buy Used: $2.75
as of 11/21/2009 09:48 EST details
You Save: $10.23 (79%)
New (46) Used (48) Collectible (3) from $2.73
Seller: moviesandgamestore
Rating:  276 reviews
Sales Rank: 3258
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: Quechua (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 126 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: MCAD25942D
ISBN: 1417022043
UPC: 025192594229
EAN: 9781417022045
ASIN: B00005JNCZ
Theatrical Release Date: September 24, 2004
Release Date: February 15, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
The beauty of the South American landscape and of Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Bad Education) gives The Motorcycle Diaries a charisma that is decidedly apolitical. But this portrait of the young Che Guevara (later to become a militant revolutionary) is half buddy-movie, half social commentary--and while that may seem an unholy hybrid, under the guidance of Brazillian director Walter Salles (Central Station) the movie is quietly passionate. Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna, a lusty and engaging actor) set off from Buenos Aires, hoping to circumnavigate the continent on a leaky motorcycle. They end up travelling more by foot, hitchhiking, and raft, but their experience of the land and the people affects them profoundly. No movie could affect an audience the same way, but The Motorcycle Diaries gives a soulful glimpse of an awakening social conscience, and that's worth experiencing. --Bret Fetzer
Product Description
An inspirational adventure based on the true story of two young men whose thrilling and dangerous road trip across latin america becomes a life-changing journey of self-discovery. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 05/22/2007 Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal Mia Maestro Run time: 127 minutes Rating: R
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 276
 The Motorcycle Diaries November 4, 2009
Damaris S. Luckey (TX, USA)
The movie is really good and the location is beautiful. It shows the good side of Che Guevara, who once was a man with a heart.
The Motorcycle Diaries October 3, 2009
point_of_view
An absolute gem. The film remarkably capable of telling this complex story in a very enjoyable format. Lots of food for thought!
Great Seller August 29, 2009
Lydia Pinkham (Loganville, GA)
Item was brand new, sealed and exactly as described. Thanks for an honest sale!
Wandering and Wonder over Worrying and War April 15, 2009
The Aeolian Kid (WAMESIT)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Wandering and Wonder over Worrying and War
When it came time to review this movie, I could not do it. That is, I could not do it without also reviewing it within the context of two other movies that I had just recently watched because all three of them have such a similar theme. In fact, they all have so many things in common that I decided to review all three of them at the same time as a medley, something I have never done before but which seems called for. If you'll follow me, you'll see what I'm getting at.
I was recently talking to a friend of mine at work when we happened to run into each other in the men's room. He asked me if I had ever seen the film EASY RIDER, and I answered that it was interesting and very synchronistic that he should ask me that because it was the last movie that I had just enjoyed watching at home on DVD. I said, "Man, you know, I was JUST watching that last week! I LOVE that movie. I wanted to get the deluxe edition but I could not find it anywhere, so I just picked up the regular one at GIANT (the local supermarket) in the bargain bin for nine bucks." My friend, Ian, then said, "I only own three movies in my collection: EASY RIDER, THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, and INTO THE WILD. Have you seen the other two?" I answered that I had not and that I had always wanted to see the both of them, to which he quickly replied, "You can borrow mine, man. I'll bring them in tomorrow for you." "Hey, thanks a lot, man," I replied with gratitude, and we both went back to work.
I watched both of those movies Ian let me borrow over the weekend of April 10, 11, 12, 2009 right on the heels of having watched EASY RIDER just weeks before. The amazing amount of similar themes running through all three of these films is impressive. All three of these movies express a preference for wandering and wonder over worrying and war for the characters involved. Each of them seems to express the plight of characters dealing with their own, personal rejection of the reality of petty worries and war (The Iliad), and choosing, instead, a life of venturing forth into the unknown world of wonder and wandering (The Odyssey). The characters in all three of these movies depict a great love of adventure and a great joy of being out on the open road. Jack Kerouac, author of ON THE ROAD, would have loved all three of these fantastic films, especially INTO THE WILD, as he was a great lover of the books of Jack London. Also, they all have a great, cinematic and panoramic, wide-angle viewpoint of the world. Watching these films gets one out of one's own head and puts one right into the world of the film. The scenery in all three films is stunning and absolutely breathtaking. The viewer is immediately projected "into the wild" world (if you will) of the characters. It's intense! You get taken along for a ride that goes not only far and wide out into the world but, also, deep into the hidden spaces of one's heart and mind. All three of these films will make you think about your own life in particular as well as the greater meaning of life in general. They are deep, psychological films that demand conscious labor of intellectual thought and emotional soul searching on the part of the viewer. You get taken for a ride, but it is definitely NOT "easy!"
In my case, watching these films - especially INTO THE WILD - brought me back to a time when I myself, like the character in the movie, was 22 years old and questioning my place in life: what I wanted to be, what I wanted to do, where I wanted to live, how I wanted to live, and who I wanted to be with. I realize now that I was seeking a sense of place to fit in and a community to be a part of that I felt comfortable in more than merely trying to "find myself." But understanding that when you are going through it is another thing altogether. Watching INTO THE WILD hits home on all these points and more! I remember having just seen The Grateful Dead in concert in Hartford, Connecticut with my good buddy, Jimmy, in May of 1997, and feeling like I wanted to just bust loose of all of the constraints of society that seemed to be holding me back from my true calling - whatever that was. I was feeling like a wild animal caught in a trap, and I wanted to be free. I had dropped out of college almost two years before, and I had been working at two jobs back in my hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. That summer, like the kid in INTO THE WILD, I planned to get away and I bought a bunch of camping equipment, quit my jobs, and hit the road. I first went up north to New York State to camp out with some members of the Neo-American Church in the region of Cranberry Lake. When I decided not to stay and started to trek back out to head off somewhere else, my glasses fell off of my head and into the muddy, swampy muck I had found myself in along the water's edge. It took me an hour to find them. I realized then and there that I was handicapped for this kind of wandering around with all this heavy weight on my shoulders. So, I hitchhiked back home, feeling just as lost and just as confused as ever. I continued to read hundreds of books to find an answer to my quest for authenticity and community, only to learn that I was just making the book stores richer. I tried yet again to break away that fall, and went back to western Massachusetts to see if I could find work out near my friends who were still going to school there. I could relate to the scene in INTO THE WILD where Christopher writes in his diary of all freedom seekers in the history of this country seeking it by going out "west." Whenever I would hear the lyrics to "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin, when Robert Plants sings: "There's a feeling I get when I look to the west and my spirit is crying for leaving," I would feel an urge inside me to head out west before I got too old to do it. Indeed, Christopher tries to inspire the old man who wanted to adopt him in the film (Hank Holbrook) to do the very same thing! After spending two weeks looking for work with no luck, and deciding not to move into a deserted cabin or tepee built out in the back woods of a local farmer's land because of the weather and being all alone, I left the generous hospitality of my good friend, Greg, and once more headed back home to find my way that way. Years later, after working an assortment of odd jobs over many years, I eventually ended up opening my own health food store in the summer of 1989 after deciding not to buy some land way up north in Maine or Vermont near the Canadian border - the only place I could afford land at the time. I concluded that if I bought the land, I would never be able to later do the health food store (one of the last business bastions left of hippiedom in corporate America), but if I opened the store and did not like it, I could always cash-in and then go off and buy some land somewhere out in the woods. I was always talking about "moving to Alaska," to live in freedom and stuff like that - so I can really relate to what Christopher McCandless (the real character and promising young man of the true story of INTO THE WILD) was going through. I felt like I was looking at myself re-living my past. He took the path I almost took. I turned back. He never got the chance to. God only knows where he would be today if he had lived to tell his story!
I have a cousin who actually did the same thing once. He was even younger than me when he did it. My cousin, George, actually made it all the way to Alaska, and then Hawaii, and then Europe as well. He went all around the world. When he reached Alaska, he hooked up with some of his old friends from Dunstable, Massachusetts who had also moved up there to make money working on the pipeline and on fishing boats. He found work up there for a while, too, just like some of the characters in these three films. They worked along the way to help to make their journey. George ended up finding his friend, Jim Lavrakas, a famous photographer today for the Anchorage Daily News in Alaska. Ernesto and Alberto worked in a Leper Colony for a while in Peru. Christopher McCandless worked out in the fields cutting grain for a while to help pay his way. I have a good friend named Phil who actually did do what I had once intended on doing myself. He worked his butt off for years, saved a bunch of cash, and bought himself 25 acres of land up in Maine where he lives off the grid out in the woods as an independent, organic farmer and orchard grower. He says he did it to be able to live like a free man out on the land away from all of the social evils and urban ugliness of the city. He also wanted to be free and independent of his family, like Chris in INTO THE WILD. He did it. I guess I was too much of a homebody and a Hobbit to live alone all by myself out in the woods somewhere where no one knew me. It takes courage to live alone like Thoreau out in the wild. You need guts to do this kind of stuff. I know that one reason why I returned back home from my meager attempt at wandering through the woods was that I really missed music. I am a musician. There is no way to jam with other people and enjoy music and dance when you live alone out in the woods. It is impossible. Nevertheless, till this day, the TV series that ran in the early nineties about life up in a small town called Cicely, Alaska - NORTHERN EXPOSURE - is still my all-time, favorite television program. It had colorful characters. I guess some romantic ideas die hard.
It takes a lot of courage to leave the comforts of home and cut loose from all of your support system of family and friends and to just take off and hit the road to God knows where. It's a "wild world," as Cat Stevens sings, and you've got to take care. All three films show the major characters getting into trouble out on the road. "Alexander Supertramp" (the vagabond name Christopher McCandless chose for himself after cutting up his social security card and all of his other documents of official identity before he hit the road) got the hell beaten out of him by railroad man one dark night when he was hobo-ing it out on a train. Both Ernesto and Alberto got chased out of town by a jealous husband and all of his hometown buddies after one of his friends saw the husband's wife flirting and dancing with Ernesto on the dance floor. In EASY RIDER, Peter Fonda's motorcycle gets a flat tire (the least of their troubles) just like Alberto's motorcycle kept on breaking down and eventually dying on them in THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES. These young characters in all of these films were not exactly experiencing the metaphysical revelations of Robert M. Pirsig in his masterful ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE - at least not at first - but they certainly all ran into a lot of trouble. The spiritual revelations began to come to them later, along the way. Indeed, all the major characters have major transformational experiences in one way or another as a result of their personal quests and traveling adventures. The road changes you. Also, there are many forks in the road, as Neil Young most recently informs us. It's hard to decide sometimes which way to go.
This changing of one's name seems to be a prerequisite to being a beat, road warrior out on the highway. Not only does Christopher change his name, but in EASY RIDER, the character played by Peter Fonda changes his name from Wyatt to "Captain America," and the character played by Dennis Hopper begins to call himself "Billy the Kid," both taking on the persona of Wild West characters of historical, American lore. In THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, Ernesto begins to be called "Fuser" and "Che" (the name that stuck with him for the rest of his life!) while his buddy, Alberto, begins to be called "Mial." It's almost as if one has to shed one's former identity as a snake sheds its skin in order to take on one's true identity - and this requires the taking on of a new name, one which reflects one's true identity.
Another thing these movies have in common is the pairing of a more sensitive and reflective character with a more rough & tumble and more aggressive character. In the case of INTO THE WILD, the character - who is very sensitive and contemplative - is paired up against the people he meets on his journey along the way, many of which tend to be less graceful and sensitive as he is. In THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, Ernesto is very much like the character that Peter Fonda portrays in EASY RIDER, and Alberto is, also, very much like the character that Dennis Hopper plays. The likeness is astounding. Ernesto, like Christopher McCandless in INTO THE WILD, is always writing in his journal and thinking about the deeper meaning of things. Peter Fonda, as well, is portrayed as the more thoughtful and contemplative one than the rambunctious and womanizing Dennis Hopper. One character is graceful and patient, full of compassion for other people, while the other is less refined and always in a hurry, and somewhat more selfish. They are like The Odd Couple - but riding on motorcycles!
Another theme that runs deeply through all three films is the powerful and destiny changing power of rivers! The awesome power of the natural world, exemplified by a river in all three films, is undeniable. You can't miss it. In the case of INTO THE WILD, it was the raging force of the rolling river rapids that prevented Chris from crossing back in the spring to the other side from which he came. It was too wide, too deep, and with waters gushing too fast to cross. He was forced to go back to the bus where he had been living all winter. It ultimately decided his destiny for him. He almost drowned in it on his attempt to cross it. In the end, it was because of the river which separated him from all that he cared about in his past that sealed his fate. The poison plants he mistakenly ingested while he was starving did not help, either. In the case of EASY RIDER, it was along the river that both characters met their fate, and got blown away by a couple of backwoods rednecks out for a spin in their pickup truck. Maybe it was their bad karma? Still, the injustice of the moment is profound, as one watches Peter Fonda's motorcycle go up in flames while Roger McGuinn of the Byrds sings Bob Dylan's song, "The Ballad of Easy Rider,' as the lyrics "flow, river flow" repeat throughout the song like the flowing river itself. In the case of THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, it was along the river where Ernesto found himself, in the sense of his true calling, while administering to a sick, leper woman who made him realize that there are other ways to heal people - and prevent them from getting sick in the first place - than by being a physician to individuals. Society itself can be in great need of a social healer. The river separated the sick lepers on one side from the hospital care workers on the other. Ernesto refused to wear the superstitious rubber gloves on his hands from the very first day. One night, on his birthday, he had a spiritual rebirth when he took a rite of passage and dove into the river, swimming all the way across to the other side where all of the sick lepers along the shore encouraged him on. On doing so, he once and for all proved to his friend, Alberto, that he was no wimp but a true man with determination and courage. He showed an inner strength that inspired all of those around him. How they cheered his victory over the river! He would not be stopped by anything. That came later, when he was "Che Guevara" the revolutionary in Bolivia, when the sneaky CIA killed him. His nobility still shines brightly! Like "Alexander Supertramp" in INTO THE WILD and "Captain America" in EASY RIDER, he had a huge heart and a great soul. He truly cared about people.
Another theme that runs through all three of these films is a sense of loneliness. The number on the bus that Christopher lived in depicted in INTO THE WILD is number 142. Numerologically, this adds up to a number 7 - the number of solitude and loneliness. In EASY RIDER, the character played by Peter Fonda ends up all alone in a New Orleans cemetery, perched atop a statue of the Virgin Mary while he's peaking on LSD in a death-rebirth acid trip-induced mystical experience, screaming out in tears to his real dead mother and asking her why she killed herself, leaving him all alone. In THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, you find Ernesto feeling more and more isolated from his friend and feeling lonely after he receives the "Dear John letter" from his girlfriend who they had visited just weeks before. His sense of loss and isolation is profound. His shattered dream of a romantic relationship with this woman cleared the path to true enlightenment for him. The viewer can sense this profoundly at the end of the film when you see him saying goodbye to Alberto before getting alone onto the aeroplane waiting to take him away toward his ultimate destiny. All three of these characters experienced major spiritual transformations along their journey out on the road of life far away from home.
One last characteristic that all the major characters in these three films have in common is their persistent, uncompromising, diligently determined drive to all reach their goals - for good or ill. They are all absolutely hell-bent on following their dreams and dancing to the beat of their own drummer. They all choose freedom over security. Ironically, they all consciously choose the path of Odysseus - of wandering - but they all end up reaching the same end as Achilles - of dying young in a flame of glory. That's fate. The ancient Greeks called her "Moira." Even the Gods themselves are at her mercy. In EASY RIDER, Billy was always pushing his more contemplative partner onward toward their goal of reaching the famous whorehouse in New Orleans. It almost seems as if the only reason why "Captain America" wanted to also go was to pay his respects to their long lost companion, George (played dramatically by Jack Nicholson) the attorney who got them out of jail, whose idea it was to go there in the first place. Peter Fonda's character was loyal to a fault when it came to his friendship with Billy. In THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, Alberto (the horny rascal) was always pushing Ernesto to go out of his spiritual centeredness and jump into the dangerous fray of the more seedy side of life. Finally, in INTO THE WILD, it was "Alexander Supertramp's" intense reaction to the constant, dysfunctional fighting between his mother and father back home that pushed him on and outward to not ever end up in the same situation himself. We must also acknowledge that all of these characters were young and anxious to sew some of their wild oats, a natural condition of youth everywhere.
One might ask what would have happened to all of these characters if they had changed their minds along the way of their respective, individual quests and decided, instead, to stay with companions they had met along the way, or turn back and go back home? I remember when I first saw EASY RIDER as a kid, when it first came out in 1969. We all went to the movie theater as a group and all watched it together, getting a kick out of hippies smoking real pot, live and on camera. Some of us thought they should have stayed in the hippie commune. If they had lived, would they have stayed together? Would "Captain America" have gone back to be with those people? The same goes for INTO THE WILD. What would have happened if Christopher had stayed longer with his hippie friends in the trailer park? What would have happened if he left Alaska before the ice melted and went back to be with the girl he sang with who was a musician and who clearly cared for him? In THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, what would have happened if Ernesto changed his mind and went back to be with his girlfriend? Would there have ever been a Cuban revolution? It's interesting that the characters in EASY RIDER had the goal of reaching a whorehouse, and the character in THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES - "Che Guevara" - was instrumental in ridding CUBA of all of its underworld-controlled and corrupt, exploitative whorehouses and gambling casinos! Who woulda thunk that - coming from this bookish, sensitive doctor!
Ultimately, what one comes away learning from all three of these films, and which is expressed at the end of INTO THE WILD by Christopher McCandless, is that what really matters most in life is true happiness and peace of mind, and that the only way to be truly fulfilled and happy is by sharing it with other people. Happiness can only be found in community. To reach a real community where you can truly be yourself and live an authentic life is a real blessing. Billy and "Captain America" never got the chance. Christopher McCandless learned this truth - but too late to live it. Only Ernesto reached the higher octave of societal existence and sustained a life on a higher level of community involvement through his unbending will and indomitable spirit to "work for the good of the whole," as my friend, Al, likes to say. He was true to himself; that is, he took what he learned from being alone on the road away from home and brought it back with him to transform society back home and, ultimately, everywhere. He may have fallen off that damn, rickety, old motorcycle one too many times to be content with the trust in machinery and mechanical living to the extent that most people allow themselves to fall prey to. He found true freedom from the fold by transforming the fold itself, and it was life on the road that transformed him.
Thoreau said it best: "In wilderness is the preservation of the world." Wandering through the wilderness is dynamically healing!
... YOWZA! - George Nicholas Koumantzelis / The Aeolian Kid ... April 15, 2009
Motorcycle Diaries April 12, 2009
Jared McClain (New Jersey USA)
This movie did a good job at portraying Ernesto Guevara's road trip through South America. It depicts two bright minds who like many their age want to see some of the world. The film did a good job at showing the situations that helped change Che while not focusing too much on the negative. Redford did a good job.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 276
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