The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2005	Won	Oscar	Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song Jorge Drexler For the song "Al Otro Lado Del Río".
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Jose Rivera

Focus Features
Directed by Walter Salles
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Focus)
(Starz)

Two Argentinian medical students embark on a journey across South America by motorcycle. The first half is an episodic look at the people they meet and places they stop along the way. It is not until they reach Peru, in particular a leper colony at which they volunteer their medical help, that the story finds itself. The young Che Guevara, who would later become a Cuban revolutionary and murdered by the CIA, finds his calling in the broken down people he meets on the trip. I was not particularly moved by his speech calling for the unification of South America which seemed to be where all of this was leading. Still, an interesting story of youthful idealism with magnificent location shooting throughout South America.