Men With Guns . Tucson Weekly . 05-03-98

Men With Guns

DIRECTED BY: John Sayles

REVIEWED: 05-03-98

MEN WITH GUNS. John Sayles takes us on a tour through a jungle full of evil soldiers, exploited workers, and ruthless guerrillas in Men With Guns, the latest offering from America's most determined independent filmmaker. Our guide on this tour is a complacent, middle class, Central American doctor (Federico Luppi), who acts as a sort of stand-in for all complacent, comfortable audience members. The doctor, safe in his shell, doesn't believe the tales of atrocities and power abuse that he hears until he voyages into the jungle himself, in search of a group of students he trained to give medical care to isolated peasant villages. Once there, he finds that most of his students have fled or been murdered in the aftermath of a brutally suppressed peasant rebellion. On his journey, the doctor picks up traveling companions, Wizard of Oz-style, as he searches for some shard of justice and humanity. Sayles tells this difficult story with style and grace, despite a certain amount of visual clunkiness. And he had the guts to write the dialogue in Spanish.

--Richter

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Men With Guns
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Other Films by John Sayles
Limbo
Lone Star

Film Vault Suggested Links
Red Corner
Chocolate Babies
Animal Farm

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