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The Motorcycle Diaries is not a “coming-of-age” story as it has been described by a number of commentators. When Che Guevara took off on a motorcycle journey across South America he was not a teenager; he was 23-years-old and therefore already “of age.” In my view, this book has nothing to do with coming-of-age issues, rather it is a “hippie discovers communism” kind of story. The Che Guevara that we meet in The Motorcycle Diaries is a hippie who drifts from place to place without any coherent plan. He is alienated from society. He sees the ill effects of materialism...

Had Che Guevara not been executed by Bolivians in 1967, he may well be celebrating his 77th birthday this week. Or he may have endured a bloody death at the hands of other enemies. Had he lived, Western college students almost certainly would not be walking around campus mindlessly displaying his likeness on flaming red T-shirts. A dead martyr is much easier to lionize than a living dictator. Though he died nearly 40 years ago, Guevara is still sparking controversy. Rolling Stone magazine reported last week that guitar legend Carlos Santana was protested at his June 1 Miami concert. The...

Thirty-eight years after Ernesto "Che" Guevara's death, the revolutionary and his familiar black beret, solemn face and burning eyes remain a surprisingly resilient fashion statement, reports the New Jersey Record. Guevara's image, as drawn by illustrator Alberto Korda, still appears on caps, T-shirts, posters, key rings, books and documentaries. But his status as a cultural icon has grown even bigger after the release of the 2004 film about a young Guevara: "The Motorcycle Diaries." Which is perplexing to those who knew the man - or simply know what he did. In contrast with the image of the idealistic Latin American...

Che Guevara; Assasin and Bumbler por Humberto Fontova "SENTENCE first--VERDICT afterwards." said the Queen. "Nonsense!" said Alice loudly. "Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. (From Alice In Wonderland) They say Lewis Carroll was a serious dope fiend, his mind totally scrambled on opium when he concocted Alice In Wonderland. A place where the sentence comes first and the verdict afterwards, where people who protest the madness are sentenced to death themselves -- what lunacy! If only Carroll had lived a bit longer. If only he'd visited Cuba in 1959 when every paper from...

Nominations for this year's Academy Awards were announced last week, and due to a technicality, Walter Salles's acclaimed The Motorcycle Diaries isn't eligible for the foreign language Oscar. Because Diaries was shot in several South American countries, and financed primarily with U.S. dollars, it fell between the cracks in a process which allows each foreign country to nominate only one film. Well, boo hoo. The movie -- executive-produced by Robert Redford -- follows the adventures of the young Ernesto "Che" Guevara on a motorcycle odyssey across South America in 1951-52. It was during this trip, the film suggests, that Che...

No Oscar For Che By Glynn Custred The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finds itself in a bind. The Spanish language film The Motorcycle Diaries is ineligible for this year's foreign-language Academy Award, not because of the language, nor because the film offends the sensitivities of Hollywood.  Indeed, quite the contrary.  Executive producer Robert Redford's Motorcycle Diaries is the story of the political awakening of young Ernesto Che Guevara, the most salient 20th-century icon of the Left whose Jesus-like face peers at us from countless posters and T-shirts around the world. No, the problem for the Academy...

The real Che - by Anthony Daniels (aka Theodore Dalrymple) In the Prologue to his recent history of Cuba, Richard Gott, a British journalist of pronounced left-wing sympathies, remembers Ernesto Guevara’s arrival at a reception at the Soviet Embassy in Havana in 1963, at which he too was present: “Guevara strode in after midnight, accompanied by a small coterie of friends, bodyguards, and hangers-on, wearing his trademark black beret, and with his shirt open to the waist. He was incredibly beautiful.” There is no accounting for taste, of course, and I never had the advantage of seeing Guevara in the...

October 13, 2004 | Acton Commentary Scary Movie: Hollywood Humanizes the Despot by Bruce Edward Walker Che Guevara is commonly used in dorm room decor. As Halloween approaches, Hollywood is set to release a spate of movies designed to frighten moviegoers with the usual seasonal fare of vampires, werewolves, and zombies. But critical accolades are also being paid to another type of horror film, one that shows the allure of destructive economic and political ideologies championed by charismatic personalities. These new films look at a Nazism and Communism that, under the guise of bringing economic salvation, unleashed some of...

Director Walter Salles ("Central Station") follows the future icon of the Cuban communist revolution during 1952, as Ernesto and his older friend, Alberto Granado (the charismatic Rodrigo de la Serna), go on an 8,000-mile motorcycle journey through South America. This is a rare example of how to tell the story of a well-known figure without turning it into a cursory, greatest-hits collection of the person's life. It's also one of the year's best films.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- At first glimpse, Gael Garcia Bernal's boyish looks don't bring revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara to mind: no goatee, no military beret, no fatigues. That's a good thing, however, as the 26-year-old rising Mexican star redefines the leftist revolutionary for the big screen. The Motorcycle Diaries, a Robert Redford-produced accounting of Che's youthful escapades across South America, opened Thursday in Guevara's native Argentina and is coming in September to American audiences. It has screened in Cuba to enthusiastic audiences. Garcia Bernal, who previously starred as Julio in Y Tu Mama Tambien, has a seemingly impossible task:...

Redford: Tyranny's useful idiot Posted: January 29, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Cuban dictator Fidel Castro wooed Robert Redford in Havana this week. It was hardly necessary. Redford has been doing Castro's bidding for years without being seduced by the tyrant of the Caribbean. "He came to me," Redford told Reuters. "He seemed to be in good health, good humor, good spirit." Castro wanted to congratulate Redford on his new film, "The Motorcycle Diaries," lionizing his old comrade-in-arms, Marxist-Leninist revolutionary Che Guevara. "I came to present the film that I produced on Che Guevara and I am very...