Men with Guns (1998)

Just perfect...

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"The mediocre movie explains everything twice and always means exactly what it says. It waves its sincerity aloft like a truce flag. It leaves no questions unanswered. It tells you exactly where you should stand in relation to its characters and its subject matter. It is frequently soothing because it tells you that you are right. But it tends not to stick in the memory because there's nothing there to wonder about." - Vincent Canby Set in an unnamed Latin American country, "Men With Guns" revolves around Dr Fuentes, an ageing physician who once trained a group of students to provide health care for poverty-stricken citizens who live in remote agricultural communities.When he hears rumours that his former students are dead or dying, Fuentes bravely attempts to investigate. What follows is a tale akin to Conrad's "Hearts of Darkness", in which the doctor ventures deeper and deeper into the countryside, until he comes face to face with the "men with guns"; military and guerrilla forces who terrorise peasants.Like most of director John Sayles' films, "Men With Guns" is a quasi-Marxist tract (Marxism, at its best, is far more radical) about working class struggle. Here, though, Sayles attempts to depict feudalism as just another hierarchal market system (and vice versa). And rather than the tone of angry resistance which coloured his earlier films, Sayles adopts instead a tone of almost total futility. As our hero travels further into the countryside he grows more and more disillusioned, the disconnect (and also, the implicit connection) between his cosy middle classy city life and the violent peasantry becoming increasingly unbearable. Indeed, the different peasants Dr Fuentes encounters all demonstrate themselves to be completely resolved to their fates. They identify themselves as gum people, coffee people, banana people, history having long conditioned them into accepting subservience.7.5/10 – Though well meaning, and though its message is positively vital, this is an overlong, aesthetically plain and badly paced film, lacking the nuances of Sayles' best work. The film's final 20 minutes elevate things somewhat. Worth one viewing.

Once again screenwriter/director John Sayles has done it. I was flipping through the channels, and saw a movie in Spanish. I am a Spanish major so whenever a chance to listen to some dialog comes along, I usually will listen for a few minutes just for practice.I became totally engrossed. I hit the info button on my DVR to see the name of the movie. I was on IFC channel & it said it was a movie about hoodlums. Uh, no... There was another movie same year same name that I've no doubt wasn't anywhere near as wonderful as this one. So I paused the DVR at the end & looked up Federico Luppi & crossed referenced it with Damián Delgado to find the real name of the movie. Which turned out to be this one. Enough of how I found it...This is another great example of supreme storytelling by John Sayles. Anyone who has seen Lone Star or Passion Fish knows that he is a storyteller extraordinaire. Not to mention he usually manages to throw in some meaning. Another reviewer complained that there was meaning. Weird... I don't see anything wrong with that. Isn't that what most of us are searching for? In this story Dr. Fuentes is in an unidentified South American country that has been ripped apart by war and guerillas. He is searching for his students, doctors who were trying to help the indigenous population through medicine. He finds wherever he goes that his students are dead or missing. Along the way he encounters a boy with no family that becomes his "mascot" and later a deserter from the army with a hideous past. Then a priest who has lost faith, then a young girl who is mute. Each person has a story to tell, each person a part of the puzzle of what it is to be human and alive.I loved the ending, because it showed that even when we think our lives have been pointless, we have like the concentric ripples in a lake after a stone is dropped, affected those around us. Our legacy lives on through the lives we have touched, whether we know it or not. I think that we think there should be some kind of concrete evidence that WE can measure to define our legacy, but it is never what we think it is, there is mystery, magic in the way that our lives mingle and combine to form meaning. Much like in "It's a Wonderful Life," even if you think you've contributed nothing it's not true. Or in the words of the immortal Whitman: "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless- of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer: That you are here- that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse." (from Whitman's Leaves of Grass) What this movie says is just that- that each person's verse, identity contributes to the great scheme of things. I won't give away the ending of the movie, but the whole thing is just a grand example of a good story. Don't be bothered by the subtitles, it's a great movie in any language. And btw, the subtitles were pretty much right on. I just hate when I watch a subtitled movie & the translation sucks or is lacking. This is a great story, interesting people, good pacing (also directed by Sayles), and good acting too. I wish that more people could see this movie. God bless the Independent Film Channel. :)

This movie has some of the most expertly drawn characters I've ever seen in a movie. The acting and writing is absolutely superb. The ending is uplifting, but not sappy or overly sentimental. It's the type of movie that can be watched again and again.

How many directors would follow up their biggest commercial hit with a political fable with subtitles? An aging doctor travels into the mountains in an unspecified Latin American country and finds that local politics can be murderous. He picks up various passengers on the way: a faithless priest, a guilt-stricken deserter and a world-wise orphan. A political road movie with both chilling and humerous asides, the mechanics and politics are both familiar but the mixture is fresh. Another fine addition to Sayles' increasingly eclectic CV: 8/10.