the motorcycle diaries.

Well, no I lied, I managed to get into blogspot today - so I don't have to re-setup another blog. And my midsems are over, so Chelle is feeling rather elated!

Just finished watching The Motorcycle Diaries, it's what one would call a very thought-provoking film... which I guess you could say is the reaction I like to get when I watch something. That's why I don't watch chick flicks. When I come out of them, I always come out thinking "so, I just wasted an hour and a half of my time in that thing, and what did I get out of it?... Um ... oh yeah I saw Oliver James kiss Hillary Duff. Ew". And action movies. I don't like action movies. And I HATE horror.

But back to my original topic.

I guess that a little bit of background would be nice. The Motorcycle Diaries has to do with the Argentine-born doctor, Marxist revolutionary, politician, and Cuban guerrilla leader - the man known as Che Guevara. When he was a medical student from a fairly well-to-do family, he used to travel around, and in his last year, a friend of his convinced him to take a year off and travel across Latin America on a rusty old motorbike (that broke down halfway). The diaries that he kept during this trip became The Motorcycle Diaries (I want to read this! It's at the top of my list now!). He basically came into direct contact with the poverty in which many lived, that he never really knew existed before. Through these experiences he became convinced that only revolution could remedy the region's economic inequality, leading him to study and become involved in social revolutions in Cuba, Guatemala, Bolivia ... and yes, he was assasinated by a CIA-led military operation (this is a documented fact).

To me, it's a kind of personification of the phase "one must be the change that one would see in the world". It says that an individual, once they see what is around them and should they take action, can make a difference. I rank this film up there with Crash and Almost Famous, simply because they ask all the deeper questions. And also because I want to believe in the message that they send. That I, even I, can make a difference.

What if? What can I do? Or will I just simply sit back and shrug, and say - c'est la vie?