flyby
28th December 2004, 22:52
The following review appeared on Revolutionary Worker Online (http://rwor.org), in both english and spanish
The Motorcycle Diaries:
Getting to the Other Side of the River
by Miguel Alfonso Cañero
I was recently sharing stories with a friend of mine after having watched the film The Motorcycle Diaries. She told me about her travel to Michoacán, Mexico. There’s a place, high up in the mountains, which every winter attracts thousands of butterflies that migrate all the way down from Canada. They’re the most beautiful things to watch, as they hang off the branches of the trees and majestically display their vibrant colors. It’s one of those things that leave you in awe of nature. But the trek there is difficult. You have to climb up a steep pathway and the more you climb the harder it is to breathe, so you have to stop every now and then and rest. Along the way she met a woman from the town nearby who had never seen the butterflies before. Not because she didn’t want to but because she couldn’t. The residents of the town are poor and many of the men go to the city for at least half of the year to find work. This woman had grown up hearing about the butterflies but the desperate conditions have not allowed her for much leisure time to explore and wonder and think.
But just like caterpillars turn into butterflies, everything in nature, including society and the consciousness of people also changes and transforms. And this theme of "change and transformation" plays a prominent role in the latest film by Brazilian director Walter Salles, The Motorcycle Diaries.
I was very interested to see this film which is based on the student years of Ernesto Che Guevara who later became a leader of the Cuban revolution—since I have very different views from Che on revolutionary ideology and strategy. But what stood out to me most about this film—which is something that really good art can do—is that it provokes us to think about radically changing the world at a time when the political climate in North America is as hostile to such radical notions as the cold weather is to the butterflies.
rest of the article (http://rwor.org/a/1263/motorcycle-diaries.htm)
The Motorcycle Diaries:
Getting to the Other Side of the River
by Miguel Alfonso Cañero
I was recently sharing stories with a friend of mine after having watched the film The Motorcycle Diaries. She told me about her travel to Michoacán, Mexico. There’s a place, high up in the mountains, which every winter attracts thousands of butterflies that migrate all the way down from Canada. They’re the most beautiful things to watch, as they hang off the branches of the trees and majestically display their vibrant colors. It’s one of those things that leave you in awe of nature. But the trek there is difficult. You have to climb up a steep pathway and the more you climb the harder it is to breathe, so you have to stop every now and then and rest. Along the way she met a woman from the town nearby who had never seen the butterflies before. Not because she didn’t want to but because she couldn’t. The residents of the town are poor and many of the men go to the city for at least half of the year to find work. This woman had grown up hearing about the butterflies but the desperate conditions have not allowed her for much leisure time to explore and wonder and think.
But just like caterpillars turn into butterflies, everything in nature, including society and the consciousness of people also changes and transforms. And this theme of "change and transformation" plays a prominent role in the latest film by Brazilian director Walter Salles, The Motorcycle Diaries.
I was very interested to see this film which is based on the student years of Ernesto Che Guevara who later became a leader of the Cuban revolution—since I have very different views from Che on revolutionary ideology and strategy. But what stood out to me most about this film—which is something that really good art can do—is that it provokes us to think about radically changing the world at a time when the political climate in North America is as hostile to such radical notions as the cold weather is to the butterflies.
rest of the article (http://rwor.org/a/1263/motorcycle-diaries.htm)