Salvador (1986)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Oliver Stone

Writers:

Oliver Stone (written by) and
Rick Boyle (writer)

Release Date:

23 April 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Thriller | War

Tagline:

Based on a true story.

Plot:

A journalist, down on his luck in the US, drives to El Salvador to chronicle the events of the 1980 military dictatorship...

Plot Keywords:

El Salvador | Central America | Bloody Body Of Child | Death | Execution

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

James Woods	...	Richard Boyle
James Belushi	...	Doctor Rock
Michael Murphy	...	Ambassador Thomas Kelly
John Savage	...	John Cassady
Elpidia Carrillo	...	María (as Elpedia Carrillo)
Tony Plana	...	Major Maximiliano 'Max' Casanova
Colby Chester	...	Jack Morgan - State Department Analyst
Cynthia Gibb	...	Cathy Moore (as Cindy Gibb)
Will MacMillan	...	Colonel Bentley Hyde Sr.
Valerie Wildman	...	Pauline Axelrod
José Carlos Ruiz	...	Archbishop Romero
Jorge Luke	...	Colonel Julio Figueroa
Juan Fernández	...	Army Lieutenant
Salvador Sánchez	...	Human Rights Leader
Rosario Zúñiga	...	Human Rights Assistant

Also Known As:

Outpost: Salvador (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

123 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Singapore:R21 (DVD rating) | Iceland:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Brazil:16 | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Alameda County, California, USA

Company:

Hemdale Film

Trivia:

Spoilers: Kathy's murder is based on a true event that happened in El Salvador, when four American nuns were raped and murdered.

Goofs:

Continuity: The position of the gun in the red-shirted man's hand changes from lowered to 90 degrees with his body.

Quotes:

Richard Boyle: Is that why you're here, Colonel? Some kind of post-Vietnam experience like you need a rerun or something? You pour a hundred twenty million bucks into this place, you turn it into a military zone, so what, so you can have chopper parades in the sky?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Into the Valley of Death (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

El Campecino

An emotional entry into an American nightmare

Having seen this movie more than ten times, over the last decade and one half, it as taken on many shades of meaning, but it continues to show how the more things change the more they stay the same. The reporter's sense of gathering news seems to be one of self-sacrifice and a search for truth however, the director shows how the American reporter possesses a quixotic sense of right and wrong that is overwhelmed by self-interest and self-indulgence not unlike the American public. He is unable to report with the clarity of a John Reed. Other points of interest are the visuals of the local life of peasants, who just want to live. They are shown to be no different than the peasants of Chile or Vietnam. Contrasting this life is the ruling elite that manipulates the meaning of the simple needs of the peasants into an ideology that threatens the middle class and the business interests that exploit the resources of this third world country. When the environment becomes so intolerable that the peasants begin to revolt, the forces of the ruling elite call on the American military might to help quell the rebellion. Here we discover the atrocities that become the daily part of life and bring the audience emotions out of its dispassionate viewpoint into one that feels the helplessness of a beaten people.

It seems to me that the director was more into making a movie than selling tickets. For this we are grateful. This movie is as fresh with insight and meaning as it was when it was released. Dr. Zim Robert