Motorcycle Diaries

Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo De La Serna, Mia Maestro, Mercedes Moran, Jean Pierre Noher

Directed by: Walter Salles

RS: 3of 4 Stars

2004 Focus Features Drama

Because Che Guevara is often reduced to a T-shirt logo, this road movie has great value in presenting his 1952 trip with cousin Alberto Granado through South America. The two begin as patrician students, but after they witness the lives of indigenous people savaged by a Peruvian mining company and live in a leper colony, the seeds of Che's revolutionary postscript are sown. Gael Garc'a Bernal shines as Guevara, an asthmatic who could never get the hang of the mambo.