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I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Fresh and Exciting

Awesome Movie

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I saw this film once, on cable, completely unaware of who John Sayles was, and initially unsure if I wanted to watch something which sounded so didactic, but what I found was one of the most compelling dramas I had ever seen. The story follows a wealthy doctor from a lush unnamed city in a fictional South American country(but its filmed in Mexico), on his journey through the country side, as part of his retirement, he is going to first visit those doctors whom he trained that went on to work in poor villages. Out of the comfort of the city comes the violence of rural areas, crimes and horrors perpetrated not by the government or the rebels, but in the eyes of the many villagers who recount the tales, by "The Men With Guns". A journey of disillusionment and story of complacency, action, and meaning, "Men With Guns" is a movie which doesn't seem particularly appealing but which side-winds viewers with it's surprising literate dialog and plotting and lush visuals of South American countryside. Men With Guns is a political allegory that sneaks up on you with it's emotional impact and gripping humanism. I don't normally like to use to the word "moving" when referring to a work of art, because it makes me think of heavy lifting and boxes, but this movie was just, that, and having only seen it once after many years, it still comes back to me, particularly when I hear the daily body counts from any of the numerous war zones, patronized by the night news.

In John Sayles, 1997 film Men With Guns, a widowed doctor, Humberto Fuentes (Fernando Luppi) leaves his practice in an unnamed Latin American country to search for medical students he trained to be doctors in Indian villages under the "Alliance for Progress". Filmed almost entirely in Spanish with English subtitles and based on stories by Francisco Goldman, the film is a fictional adventure story but suggestive of real events. Sayles has said, "As I was writing it, I made sure that almost all of the incidents are based on events that have happened somewhere else, almost to the exact detail." Naively unconvinced that there is any danger from a guerilla war in the interior, Dr. Fuentes travels to remote areas to discover his "legacy". Soon he finds out the reality. His tires are removed, his wallet is stolen, his life is threatened, and he cannot get any information because people won't speak to him out of fear. He sees starving people, destroyed villages, and people who have lost their hope, while the world is ignorant of what is taking place. Dr. Fuentes picks up several travelling companions along the way; and learns more about the struggles they have endured. Each has lost something close to them. Domingo (Damian Delgado), a soldier has deserted his army, Conejo (Dan Rivera Gonzales), a very wise young boy has lost his parents, an ex-priest Padre Portillo (Damian Alcazar) has lost his faith, and a native woman has lost her voice after being raped by soldiers. At the first village, a blind woman tells Dr. Fuentes that the "men killed one of his students with guns". When he asks her the reason, she says simply, "Because they had guns and we didn't". The film clearly shows the powerlessness of the Indians and peasants caught in the middle of a conflict they do not want to be involved in. Sayles shows peasants as little more than commodities who are used by the system: the Salt people, the Sugar people, the Coffee, Banana and Gum people, all surviving at subsistence level because of economic conditions beyond their control. The doctor finds out that it does not matter who is threatening the people, they are all just "men with guns" and Indians are just as capable of cruelty against their own people as government soldiers. Fuentes discovers that some of his students have been killed but keeps going from village to village to look for the rest. His expectations, however, are met only with one grim story after another. Weary but not despairing, he and his traveling companions set out on one last journey, a spiritual quest to find a city hidden in the rainforest called Circle of Heaven where the air is clear and there are no guns.Men With Guns has a point to make but makes it early and often and there is little suspense or plot development in the last half of the film. Mr. Sayles has wisely kept the story as generic as possible but there is no indication of what the issues are or what the conflict is all about. It is well known that civilians and "innocent bystanders" are often the biggest victims in war. Beyond that, what is the film saying? Is it that resistance movements who might be fighting an uphill battle against a brutal dictator should lay down their arms? Aside from the problems I had with the issues, the characters come across as types rather than real people. Oblivious American tourists, played by Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, are too laughable to even warrant being called stereotypes. Though credit must be given for tackling a subject that most filmmakers would rather not hear about, Men With Guns is overlong and lacking in dramatic impact. Eventually, it veers off into magical realism with much self-consciousness but little realism and no magic.

I just fell upon this movie while watching the IFC channel and I hadn't been back from Guatemala for long. After living there amongst the natives I was able to get to know them better and understand their culture more. Seeing this film brought back a lot of those memories and reminded me of the many stories I heard of the army's genocidal tendencies towards the indigenous people of Guatemala. The cinematography for this film is simple, but it shows the beautiful landscapes and run down third world towns in a way to almost show us the same details that we would see if we were really there. We have to remember that the characters portrayed in this movie are very real, they may not have the same names, but they do exist. Even the war vets who have gone to levels so low we cannot even imagine. If you would like to understand what went on in Southern Mexico and Guatemala during the 80's, I would strongly recommend this film. It left a very strong impression on me.

Barely edging out "The Spanish Prisoner" as the best film of 1998, "Men With Guns" offers quiet genius and delight for those willing to go beyond the mainstream. Although overlooked by most viewers John Sayles has basically incorporated the elemental characters of "The Wizard of Oz" and placed the dreams and desires of idealists in the cruel setting of the real world, where ever that might be. The setting of an unidentified Latin American country shows that things such as the atrocities performed by the men with guns can happen anywhere - in a developed Latin American nation or in the United States of America.John Sayles, America's most prolific director, holds in his visions more insight into the complex workings of humanity than most other directors present in an abundance of visual effects and in-your-face techniques. AMPAS has yet again failed to recognize genuine substance but hopefully this film, another in a long line of accomplishments that presents wondrous film making and excellent storytelling, will not be forgotten.