Before he became the messiah of revolution, Che Guevara was just an idealistic medical student from Buenos Aires.

It is Ernesto Guevara, not Che, who is the subject of Walter Salles' visually arresting The Motorcycle Diaries. Based on the journals of Guevara and his best friend Alberto Granado, the film tells of the road trip they took in 1952 to experience as much of South America as they could.

They wanted to see first-hand the countries they had read about, so they set off on an old Norton 500 motorbike.

At one point in the trip, Alberto (Rodrigo de la Serna) wants to spend their small cache of U.S. dollars on a prostitute.

Ernesto (Gael Garcia Bernal) wants to give them to some destitute workers evicted from their farm by a greedy landowner.

These are the seeds of Guevara's revolutionary spirit. It's Che the intellectual not the fighter.

This makes for a huge challenge, especially for Bernal, who has to play all Guevara's emotions so restrained and internal. You want so desperately to see some of the fire and venom that later defined Che.

The film's finest moments are in a leper colony, where Bernal explores Ernesto's immense humanity.

De la Serna makes Alberto the perfect foil. He's loud, lusty and raucous.

What makes Motorcycle Diaries such a special film is Eric Gautier's breathtaking cinematography.

Whether he's capturing the majesty of mountain passes, the awe-inspiring splendour of ancient cities or the souls of the people as registered on their weathered faces, Gautier draws the audience into each moment and emotion.

The trip tells us more about the lands and people that inspired Che's revolutionary spirit than it does about the man himself.

(This film is rated 14-A)

More Movie Reviews