salvador

[Tlalconetl]

i saw this oliver stone film last night on IFC. james woods seems to always play the same character in all his movies. i thought he did a great job though. very odd film. some haunting scenes. a little predictable. i knew that the cute american humanitarian working for amnesty international or whatever the organization was, would be raped. she was just so obvious in the film. didn't like the ending. can't stand films that end with text explaining what happened to the characters. it's a movie! shymalan(sp?) did the same thing in Unbreakable. really lame.

 

[Rosestar]

To really understand this film, which I really like, you have to remember the context that it was made in. I do not know how old you are, but it is obvious that you do not remember the turmoil that the USof A was up to it's neck in when it comes to Central America in the mid-1980s. Stone took alot of chances to make this movie and he got a lot of **** for it.

The cute humanitarian (actually she was a nun) who is killed, is based on real events. Nuns were raped and killed in El Salvador. The whole movie is based on real events. The Major Max character was based on a real MoFo, that was recieving millitary aid from the Regan Defense Department. The character that Woods plays is based on the real Richard Boyle. You may have missed the statement that the character made about being the last man out of Cambodia. I think he says something like "While Schanberg was getting his Pulitzer, I was getting my ass shot off..". That is true. If you do not know who Schanberg is rent "The Killing Fields" and remember that when the Sam Waterson character gets out of Cambodia, the James Wood character was still there. That is true, that really happened.

You said that that you did not like the ending. It is the ending that ties the whole thing together. We see how much **** they had to go through to get out of the hell that was El Salvador in the mid-1980s and as soon as they were in the land of the free and the home of the brave, they are still persecuted.

Of the cold war movies ever made, I think that this one has the most revalance for today... look around....

By the way, it was made 16 years before "Unbreakable" and was the film that allowed Stone to make "Platoon". It is also the feature film debut of Director of Photography Robert Richardson.

I dig the flick.

 

[Rosestar]

Yeah, I agree that the film is kinda schizophrenic. The scenes with Boyle and Dr. Rock and with Boyle and his girl are very different than the scenes of "what's going on in El Salvador". Especially the scene where Boyle confronts Major Max at the Photo Op and the scene of the Murder of the Archbishop. However, I kinda think that this mirrors the dichotomy of Boyles life he is one hand a professional photo journalist covering some very tragic events and on the other hand he is a total f*ck up with an outta control personal life.

There are some scenes that I hate. The scene with Major Max and his "boys" when he plans to kill the Archbishop sucks, and the scene at the American Embassy party is very forced. But I loved the battle scene where John Saxon gets killed.

It is not Stones best film and it has flaws, but I still dig it alot.