Salvador (1986)

Directed by Oliver Stone. Starring James Woods, Jim Belushi, John Savage, Elpidia Carrillo, Michael Murphy, Cindy Gibb, Tony Plana, Will MacMillan, Juan Fernández, José Carlos Ruiz, Valerie Wildman, Colby Chester. [R]

Cynical American photojournalist Woods and his unemployed pal (Belushi) head for Central America—the former to try and find some freelance work, the latter to carouse his way through loads of cheap booze and loose women—but simmering political tensions explode into a full-blown revolution upon their arrival, throwing their lives into chaos. The Salvadoran Civil War initially serves as a backdrop to personal issues, but then the fascinating character study that filled out the first half gives way to a more familiar political allegory, right up to the heavy-handed epilogue. That duality extends to Oliver Stone’s direction, which lurches back and forth between a quick, in-your-face style and the static compositions of a neutral observer. Contains accomplished production values and the usual emotional crescendos, but the subject matter had become pretty familiar territory by the time of its release (preceded by several other “white news media ‘heroes’ in a volatile foreign land” pictures—The Year of Living Dangerously, Under Fire, The Killing Fields, etc.); it’s not that he’s too late to the party—his tremendous Platoon from later that same year was hardly the first Vietnam War drama—but that he doesn’t bring enough to the scenario that couldn’t have been done just as well by Costa-Gavras or TIMEmagazine. Those early segments, however, are engrossing in fits and starts, primarily because of Woods, whose glib and weaselly con artist role is almost perfectly tailored for him (earning him his first Oscar nomination). The title references both the country of El Salvador and the Spanish word for “savior.”

67/100