Rating: 
Summary: Passionate and hopeless.
Review: Salvador. After years of struggling with big budget filmmaking, Oliver Stone took five million dollars and went to Mexico to film Salvador. He shot the film in fifty days. And though it continues to stand as one of his more obscure projects, it is one of his best. Although Salvador pretends to be a character study of real-life photojournalist Richard Boyle, it is an aggressive condemnation of American foreign policy in El Salvador and its support of an anti-communist regime. This is certainly James Woods finest role. His portrayl of a filthy, sleazy photojournalist earned him an Oscar nomination. His personal life in chaos, Woods heads for El Salvador to exploit the civil war that has ripped the nation apart. Along for the fun is fellow scumbag, James Belushi. They quickly find themselves surrounded by horror and atrocity. Stone pulls no punches in Salvador: nuns get raped, death squads butcher people -- right before our eyes. As leftist propaganda, Salvador is hopeless. Oliver Stone demands that we despise the fascist government who waged war with Marxist rebels. The methods of the government are indeed brutal. But we do not wish to see Marxists succeed and impliment their own brutality. So as it stands, Salvador is an unforgiving film that remains one of Oliver Stone's most passionate and fiery protests.
Rating:
Summary: A Chilling Reminder of the Barbarism Stalking Our Hearts
Review: Say what you will about Oliver Stone but one thing is certain: he knows how to bring out the best in his cast. Tom Cruise couldn't act his way out of a paper bag until BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. Kevin Cosner dropped his ho-hum dead-panning and actually raised his voice in JFK--and Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Oldman gave the performances of their lives in that film. Stone made it known that Val Kilmer wasn't just another pretty face in THE DOORS. In SALVADOR, one of Stone's first films, he gave James Woods the chance to show his stuff--enough stuff to earn him an Oscar nomination.However, this is not an easy movie to watch, in spite of Woods' brilliant job. If you can ignore the Modern Marxist 101 rhetoric, you have at the heart of this film an original, unfaltering and chilling vision of humanity run amok and evil gloating at its own success. Stone proposes that our lives really aren't our own. They are threatened, not only by the caricatures he makes out of lip-pursing military/industrial/capitalists, but also by the cruelty and savagery he senses in every human being. In one particularly chilling scene, a group of nuns are raped and executed by goons who support the anti-Marxists of El Salvador. Yes, the goons were sent on this mission by higher-ups but they DIDN'T HAVE TO DO IT. On top of that, the absolute glee on their faces as they committed this barbaric act was nothing short of demonic sadism. It and several other scenes are awe-filled and disturbing. What saves SALVADOR from being too dark to bear are the spurts of humor. Woods and James Belushi (yes, even James Belushi does a good job) play off each other beautifully; their comical quips and situations remind you of the other side of humanity: the fun-loving, friendship that doesn't get to come out and play too often. These scenes give audiences a chance to catch their collective breath after a scene of brutality, but then... BOOM... the violence is back, and it seems even more disturbing after the light flourishes of comedy. And the gloom seems twice as dark suddennly. I imagine that this was a difficult movie to get made (I've been reading other reviewer's comments on this matter) and I can see why major movie studios in the feel-good 1980s would be unwilling to finance this film: it's too darn-gosh political; it takes place in a creepy foreign country that isn't romantic; there's no romance at all; and worst of all there's no pop music song that can be spun off into a music video and sold to MTV! They must've thought that Oliver Stone was out of his mind. But he wasn't. And it is to our benefit that he pressed on and got it done. This is a most important film.
Rating: 
Summary: A gripping and major work of art
Review: The actor of "Shine" shines here. He is the astonishing journalist from a US mag who adventures into war torn corrupt Salvador. A world without good or evil, where opposites mix in a moving tour de force. A lesson for survival. You better hurry to see it. It is a must in your life time.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent portrait of the truth behind politics
Review: This is a story about the rape of a country and it's people by foreign interests. El Salvador. This film is a rare glimpse at the truth in the politics of covert foreign government manipulation. It is an almost text book example of how the government of one country can manipulate and fund the creation and maintenance of a puppet government in another to serve it's interests. All too often it is the innocent civilians of the country that loose this game. It is a gripping depiction of the tens of thousands of people that needlessly lost their lives or lost a member of family. In the light of recent events in this country I think we can all better appreciate the true significance and effect of events like these and we can better understand the frustration of people who are minding their own business only to be intruded upon by malignant forces out for self profit. To be pillaged and violated by a government simply because they do not have the means to defend themselves and so make an easy target. Don't expect a massive Hollywood production (though the excellent cinematography and reality of the imagery did much to capture and describe the true sense of the time. In part due to the fact that it was mostly filmed in El Salvador and done so using the actual troops and their military hardware that still rule the country). However the acting is very good and James woods is excellent at his role. It is a gripping movie and even more so when you consider that it is all based on fact. Even the documentary that associates the movie was extremely interesting to watch. I would thoroughly recommend this movie if you are interested in the truth of behind the scenes politics and the meddling of one country in another's affairs and the devastation this can lead to.
Rating:
Summary: One of the 10 Best Films of the 1980s
Review: This is without question the best film that Oliver Stone has ever or will ever create. Same goes for James Woods and James Belushi's performances. Stone does a marvelous job of introducing the viewer to the cultural and political changes as they drive south with Woods and Belushi in an old Mustang convertible. From that harrowing first moment that they have "arrived" in El Salvador, the film never lets up its intensity. Woods deserved a best actor Oscar for this role. A brave, poignant, and important film that manages to scare the hell out of you, entertain you, AND make you think. Welcome to El Salvador. Bravo! Regarding the Special Edition DVD, the extra features are EXCELLENT! The "making of" of documentary was fascinating (if a tad vulgar). Also, you will appreciate Woods' performance all the more when you see how prudish he is in real life, and how much he despised the real life Richard Boyle (not to mention Oliver Stone). A great value for these extra features.
Rating:
Summary: One of the 10 Best Films of the 1980s
Review: This is without question the best film that Oliver Stone has ever or will ever create. Same goes for James Woods and James Belushi's performances. Stone does a marvelous job of introducing the viewer to the cultural and political changes as they drive south with Woods and Belushi in an old Mustang convertible. From that harrowing first moment that they have "arrived" in El Salvador, the film never lets up its intensity. Woods deserved a best actor Oscar for this role. A brave, poignant, and important film that manages to scare the hell out of you, entertain you, AND make you think. Welcome to El Salvador. Bravo! Regarding the Special Edition DVD, the extra features are EXCELLENT! The "making of" of documentary was fascinating (if a tad vulgar). Also, you will appreciate Woods' performance all the more when you see how prudish he is in real life, and how much he despised the real life Richard Boyle (not to mention Oliver Stone). A great value for these extra features.
Rating: 
Summary: 0% Historically accurate
Review: This movie is completely, totally, and sjamefully innacurate to what really happened. I'm from EL Salvador and as a boy, a bomb exploded on my face, got caught in the middle of 2 gunfights and went to bed wondering If i would make it through the night. As my fellow Salvadorean said, this movie makes the guerrillas loo like they were good people and our army as cruel, reckless and "bad". First of all, I witnessed a bus being hijacked by guerrillas and all the kids taken out to be recruited. Through my experience I can say that the guerrillas AND the military did horrible things but this movie truly doenst show how the war was really like. Also I believe they try to make us look like a 1600's town. People on horse wagons and all the people are "mexican-like". I know that to most of you this will come in as a surprize but people from El Salvador as well as Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, etc don't look like Mexicans! It makes me upset that we are stereotyped as mexicans. Well, overall, this is a historically innacurate, bad movie
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing Special
Review: This was nothing special. Sure, there is some good acting (James Wood's character is so bizarre/contrived that it most likely is true). Still, the movie didn't catch my interest like others in the genre. The five minute political diatribe in the middle was not necessary. I don't agree or disagree with it, it just didn't work. That plays into some of Stone's patterns in his other movies, but not nearly as effective. Oversold.
Rating:
Summary: The Path of Self Deliverance
Review: Two photo journalists walk in a field of human remains taking pictures. One of them Richard Boyle(James Woods) is about to throw up, but only moments later he turns to his companion and says "That Spain shot you took was great". Its as this moment that you realise that the film could have been set in any other trouble spot in the world, and El Salvador is just a perfect place to present us with the character of Richard Boyle. Early on in the film, when Boyle arrives in the country, he offers one of his fellow journalists "Do you wanna go to Angola, great nightlife there." As played by James Woods, Boyle is the kind of man who wakes with a cigerette in his mouth to the sound of his landlord banging on the door to evict him. He's the kind of guy who would decide to drive down to El Salvador in a broken down 1960's car with a manic semi-insane disc jockey in search of a hot story. Only before he can do that, he has to get out of jail first, where he was sent for having over 200 hundred unpaid parking tickets. Look at it a little sideways and you have Hunter S. Thompson from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. With this character James Woods hit the bull's eye. his performance is blisteringly brilliant, manic and human, crazed, vulgar, cynical yet surprisingly vulnerable. Paul Newman admitted that he won the 1986 oscar for The Color of Money as an award for his cumalative career work, not for his unremarkable work in that film. Salvador's has a great (and under appreciated) actor's greatest performance and for that alone its worth watching. In the years 1986 through 1991 Oliver Stone released : Platoon, Slavador, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on The Fourth Of July, The Doors and JFK, thats seven films in six years. Three of these are great films. (Choose your own three). As a result Salvador feels rushed and incomplete. Its too messy to form a cohesive whole, and Stone seems desperate to get his message across when the film is really a character study of the very interesting Richard Boyle. His criticism of the U.S. government for blindingly supporting any foreign government, no matter how brutal, so long as they were anti-communist is well founded. After all the U.S. was partially responsible for keeping Zaire's Mubutto Seiseiko in power for decades(now up there socialising with Hitler and Mussolini). But in this film that message seems forced. The title of this film "Salvador" does not refer to the country, but translates as "Saviour". And the saviour is not Richard Boyle because he goes El Salvador for a good story to restore his long gone credibility, but he comes back a changed and enlightened man. El Salvador saves him.
Rating:
Summary: Cruda Realidad Politica
Review: Una pelicula sumamente real, demuestra la cara de la moneda como debe ser exactamente lo que sucedio durante la guerra civil en El Salvador, actos sangrientos y realmente tristes, se puede ver en la pelicula escenas particularmente verdaderas de actos que sucedieron en El Salvador, espero la compren el actor hizo un maravilloso papel en este film.
Que orgullo para los salvadorenos haber superado algo tan debastador como lo es una guerra civil.
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