Review of Salvador (1986) by Jai D — 04 Jul 2008

Oliver Stone's first great film has the kind of messy structure that reflects, I think, the life of Richard Boyle, a journalist upon whose experiences the film is based (he co-wrote the script with Stone).

James Woods plays Boyle in a kind of career-defining performance as a likable asshole -- but a genuine asshole -- and, likewise, the movie establishes Stone's strongest interests and his best impulses as a filmmaker committed to politics, ideas, and an essentially humanistic viewpoint.

Stone will admit his story-telling liberality, but Salvador clings largely to the facts of a particularly weird point in US and Central American history and relations. It's very well-made on a small budget and its depictions of Cardinal Romero's assassination and the murder of a group of American nuns, as well as the portrayal of the US press abroad, for good and ill, feel chillingly accurate in the first two cases and funkily correct in the case of the third.

Alternately fall-dead funny, melodramatic, and horrifying, Stone's vision helps define the time and place it depicts.