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Review
Archives
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Today's
Date is:
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Salvador
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Reviewed
by: |
Kyra
Kirkwood |
| Genre: |
Drama |
| Video: |
Anamorphic
1.85:1 Widescreen |
| Audio: |
Dolby
Digital 5.1 |
| Language: |
English |
| Subtitle: |
French
and Spanish |
| Length: |
Two
hours, three minutes |
| Rating: |
R |
| Release
Date: |
June
5, 2001 |
| Studio: |
MGM
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| Commentary:
|
Audio
commentary by director/writer/producer Oliver Stone |
| Documentaries:
|
"Into
the Valley of Death" featuring interviews with Oliver Stone,
James Woods, Jim Belushi and Richard Boyle |
| Featurettes:
|
None |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
None |
|
Interviews: |
Woods,
Stone, Belushi and others in the documentary |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
Yes |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
Yes.
Approximately 25 minutes of never-seen-before scenes |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
Yes |
| Cast
and Crew: |
James Woods,
Jim Belushi, Michael Murphy, John Savage, Cynthia Gibb |
| Screenplay
by: |
Oliver Stone
and Richard Boyle |
| Produced
by: |
Oliver Stone |
| Directed
By: |
Oliver Stone |
| Music: |
Georges Delerue |
| The
Review: |
The Oscar-nominated
"Salvador" is a tough movie to watch. It's compelling, yet repulsive
at the same time. The fact that it's based on real-life events
and a real-life photojournalist make "Salvador" that much harder
to stomach. In the early 1980s, Oliver Stone worked with freelance
journalist Richard Boyle to tell this tale of death, war, killing
and brutality in El Salvador. James Woods plays Boyle, a down-on-his-luck
man who drinks too much, works to little and has a wild streak
a mile wide. He leaves San Francisco, after his wife left him
and took their infant son with her, and goes down to El Salvador
in the early 1980s, trying to gain fame and fortune one last
time. Boyle takes his co-dependent disc-jockey friend Doctor
Rock (Belushi) with him to view the carnage of this civil war.
In the beginning, Boyle just wants to take a few hundred dollars
and live like a king in El Salvador, drinking, smoking, surfing
and having plenty of cheap sex. But after witnessing the horror
of war and the devastation of civil unrest, Boyle finds himself
less a drunken has-been than a fighter for justice. And just
like in "Platoon," we've got a young and no-holds-barred Oliver
Stone at the helm, so be prepared for numerous scenes of carnage,
blood, fire and general violence. Don't watch this DVD while
eating dinner; the death squad dump site is enough to make you
never want to eat again. Apart from the up-front brutality of
"Salvador," it's also a very witty movie, since it pairs the
sharp tongues of both Belushi and Woods. Rumor has it they hated
each other with a black passion, but the chemistry was sure
there on screen. As Stone said during his audio commentary,
"They say sometimes that a husband and wife who are best friends
make the worst films." |
| Image
and Sound |
The image
is very good, especially considering the film was shot on a
tight budget as an "indie" way back before Oliver Stone was
THE Oliver Stone. The DVD's visual quality is very apparent
when you take a peek at the non-enhanced deleted scenes. The
grainy, slightly blurred, rather dull shots makes you wonder
what we ever did before digital discs came into the marketplace.
Overall, we are never allowed to forget this is a Stone production.
Many scenes are in-your-face, very graphic and very visual.
Stone contrasts America and its big, tall skyscrapers with El
Salvador's dirt and roasting climate. The sound of "Salvador"
is also not to be overlooked. Stone keeps it loud and violent
at times, painfully quiet at others. The sound is not what today's
war-type films typify; there are not many sound stage explosions
and bigger-than-life gun battles. Instead, "Salvador" keeps
it realistic, almost like a documentary instead of a theatrical
movie. |
| The
Extras |
This special
edition is really meaty. The documentary "Into the Valley of
Death" does take a bit of patience to get into, though. It opens
with someone is off camera narrating these newsreel footage
shots of El Salvador, but it's unclear who is speaking. About
five minutes into the feature, things finally get rolling. We
then are privileged to listen to the amazing James Woods as
he talks about his absolute refusal to go down to El Salvador
and shoot a movie. We hear Oliver Stone talk about his panic
when guerilla soldiers on a tennis court killed the movie's
technical advisor and the whole crew was forced to relocate
to Mexico to continue shooting. We get to see and hear the real
Richard Boyle and his tale of how "Salvador" came to be. One
of the best tidbits of juicy information revealed-and there
are many-is when we learn of the fake script given to the El
Salvadorian government, which portrayed them as the "good guys."
So stick with the documentary during its slow-to-start period;
it's worth it. The deleted scenes section is also more detailed
than many others on the market today. Usually, viewers get to
watch about 45 seconds of a scrapped scene, but in "Salvador,"
there are some scenes that last for a few minutes. |
| Commentary |
Oliver Stone
provides the audio commentary, and he blesses the viewer with
plenty of extra information. He often delves into American history
as he describes scenes. For example, during one of the beginning
chapters, Stone diverges from his director's chair and begins
to talk like a history professor, discussing America's ignorance
of what was going on El Salvador in the 1980s. It's pretty much
true to Stone's character; he doesn't stick to any script while
creating his commentaries. Stone also reveals plenty of skeletons
in his audio track. He lets the viewers know how much Belushi
and Woods hated each other and how badly the movie tanked out
in almost every theatrical market except for Los Angeles. Stone
even compares how he made and his thought process behind "Salvador"
and "Platoon," both of which he was nominated for an Oscar. |
| Final
Words: |
"Salvador,"
despite its bloodiness, is one of Stone's best films. In fact,
it's one of Woods' best films too, which is why he got the nod
for an Oscar for this movie. The chemistry between Woods and
Belushi is amazing, as are the scenes depicting the horrors
of civil war. Most of all, "Salvador" is a must-have DVD because
it IS a bit of a documentary. Stone took a real-life journalist
who lived this drama and put his tale into America's movie theaters
. Despite not doing well at all on the big screen, home video
gave "Salvador" its second chance at life-and it thrived. Stone
waxes a bit political in "Salvador" and teaches Americans his
view of what was going on in that country while many in the
States were blissfully-and ignorantly-thriving. "The outrage
I felt about El Salvador was the truth," said Stone. "America
was backing the bad guy." |
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