'Motorcycle Diaries' shows revolutionary's early years

The film is a coming-of-age story about the famed Che Guevara.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP)-- 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.
A myth
Garcia Bernal, who previously starred as Julio in "Y Tu Mama Tambien," has a seemingly impossible task: putting flesh and blood back on the figure of the legendary Che -- who nearly 40 years after his death in the Bolivian jungle is more myth than man.
"Che is usually only seen as a revolutionary and I hope we change that," said Garcia Bernal, sporting a gothic rock T-shirt and disheveled haircut at the premiere.
Garcia Bernal plays Che as a clean-cut, 23-year-old medical student seven years before he and Fidel Castro took Havana in one of the 20th century's most famous revolutions.
The year is 1952 and Guevara, a leprosy specialist, and an Argentine friend, biochemist Alberto Granado (played by Argentine Rodrigo de la Serna) mount a single Norton 500cc motorcycle -- dubbed "The Mighty One." Their jaunt will last more than eight months and more than 10,000 kilometers across much of South America.
Their journey
From Buenos Aires, the adventurers cross Patagonia into Chile, then head up through the Peruvian highlands to Colombia before the end of the road in Venezuela.
It's the cinematically untold story of Che's coming-of-age and his growing commitment to the downtrodden. By the end, viewers have a greater awareness of how an asthmatic medical student made the leap to machine-gun toting, fatigue-clad revolutionary.
In the opening sequences, Brazilian director Walter Salles gives fleeting shots of Guevara's privileged early life: Che the rugby player wheezing after a big goal; Che the loving son kissing his mother goodbye; the awkward last dance with his girlfriend.
"We wanted to take a look at Che's history before history took over Che," said Salles, whose Oscar-nominated "Central Station" played big in the United States in 1998.
Granado, who followed Guevara to Cuba in the early 60s and started a medical school there, liked the finished film. "We want to show that Che was of flesh and blood," said Granada, 82.
The Spanish-language film was based on Guevara's "Motorcycle Diaries" and Granado's book, "With Che through Latin America."
It's the first major film to deal with Guevara in a generation.
Earlier Guevara biopics include obscure documentaries and the 1969 "Che!", starring Omar Sharif as Guevara and Jack Palance as Fidel Castro. Steven Soderbergh is set to direct "Che," due for release next year, starring Oscar winner Benicio del Toro as the fallen leftist hero.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.