John Sayles seems to have boundless courage with the films he makes. His libertarian heart shines through all his films and his latest, Men With Guns, continues that tradition. This is a road movie with a difference as it takes rich city-based Dr. Fuentes - played by the Argentinian actor Federico Luppi - on a journey into the backblocks of an unnamed Latin American country. He`s following up the students he trained to go into remote rural areas some years ago to fight bacteria and ignorance. Along the way he collects a young rape victim who`s wanted by no-one in his village, a former soldier who`s been responsible for the sort of tragedies they encounter, a young woman, also a rape victim and a failed priest...Men With Guns paints a devastating portrait of rural exploitation where the rich coerce the army to move the Indians off rich land and the poor are constantly caught between the men with guns, the guerillas and the army. Almost documentary in style, it`s slightly repetitious and also slightly too long for major impact.It`s not really about Men With Guns - that`s the naivet? of it - because all countries have men with guns, they all have armies and police. Surely it`s more about a system that endorses the lawless power of men with guns for its own benefit.David`s Comments:An interesting, quite brave, film - brave because the Spanish language in which it`s made is naturally limiting, also because of the themes of peasants (and priests and doctors) slaughtered by both the military and the guerrillas (the \"men with guns\"). The characters met by the rather too naive doctor along the way are the core of the film, and they\"re a slightly clich?d bunch (the priest with a conscience is right out of Graham Greene). The 16mm blow-up is very muddy (hard to believe Slawomir Idziak was the cinematographer). Worthy - interesting - not in the same class as LONE STAR (Sayles\" best to date).
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