Salvador

Going based on the 1001 Moves You Must See Before You Die book, I watched Salvador and was VERY impressed. Oliver Stone directed, James Woods and Jim Belushi and the most notable stars, though you'll see some familiar faces throughout. Stone shows his contempt for our government's involvement in foreign affairs throughout, but he certainly has a point. The story of El Salvador is one I was not familiar with at all, but through this you see a run of the mill(sadly)puppet government we back and put in place because they hated communism. They terrorize their own people, commit acts of genocide, and run their country into the ground. Woods is just outstanding as the sleazy/skeezy and disgraced journalist Richard Boyle. He scratches and claws a gig to El Salvador to document yet another uprising. It shows the crazy life of the photojournalist during war. There's a handful of these war horses that all know each other and follow these bloody wars. It's a real strange fraturnity of insanity. Boyle boozes and slides by, until things get really ugly. It becomes an hour long punch in the stomach when the war torn country slides deeper into violent insurrection. It's just painful and horrific imaginery and events are throw at you, then moved away from so casually it's tragic. I really, for some reason, like the movie throughout. Bottom Line: 8.6 out of 10. Probably too high of a score, but I was very enthralled by this film. Woods is phenomenal and Stone's directing is fantastic. Really this movie should be seen if for no other reason than it's an interesting story people from my generation wouldn't know about as Reagan's support of various Central American dictators that created a decade-long kick in the bags for our global reputation.