Salvador (film)

Synopsis

Veteran photojournalist Richard Boyle has been taking his camera to the world's trouble spots for over 20 years. While he does good work, Boyle's fondness for booze and drugs, and his colossal arrogance, have given him a reputation that's left him practically unemployable. Broke and with no immediate prospects, Boyle and his buddy, Doctor Rock, an out-of-work disc jockey, head to El Salvador, where Boyle is convinced that he can scrounge some lucrative freelance work amidst the nation's political turmoil. However, when Boyle and Rock witness the execution of a student by government troops just as they enter the country, it becomes clear that this war is more serious than they were expecting. Increasingly convinced that El Salvador is a disaster starting to happen, Boyle eventually decides that it's time to get out, but he's reunited with an old flame named Maria and her two children (one of whom is his), and he doesn't want to leave her behind.

While attempting to get her out of the country, Boyle is harassed by the military due to his profession and eventually leads to the deaths to innocent people by death squads.

Boyle and Maria eventually leave the country towards the United States. However, upon entering California, their bus is stopped by immigration officers and Maria allows herself to be deported alongside her children due to her guilt of leaving her homecountry behind while Boyle is arrested after desperately arguing with the officers.

Cast

Box office

The film was not successful at the box office, grossing a total of $1,500,000 in the United States.

Critical response

Salvador was popular among critics. As of January 28, 2013, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes records an average response of 92%, based on 24 reviews. Roger Ebert, a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the movie three stars out of four and wrote, "The movie has an undercurrent of seriousness, and it is not happy about the chaos that we are helping to subsidize. But basically it's a character study — a portrait of a couple of burned-out free-lancers trying to keep their heads above water."

Walter Goodman of The New York Times wrote an unfavorable review, arguing that while "as an adventure film, [it] has plenty of speed, grit and grime", it depicts "improbable people doing implausible things" and in some cases deviates from reality "for the sake of heightening the drama and hammering in the political point". He also compared it to the work of Constantin Costa-Gavras, cinematically as well as politically.

Accolades

The film garnered two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role (James Woods) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen at the 59th Academy Awards ceremony.

Home media

The Region 1 special edition DVD was released on 5 June 2001, and includes the following bonus features: