Review
J. Mark Price
Staff Writer
John Sayles, most recently responsible for the slightly more accessible Lone Star, is back with Men With Guns, a film that is both relevant and beautifully sketched. The subject matter is unpleasant and often painful, but Sayles handles the storytelling chores with a grace and vitality that is a real pleasure to watch.
While none of the actors in this independent movie are household names, the film is near-perfectly cast, and the understated acting of the principals, especially Frederico Luppi, is very fine work indeed.
This is about as far from mainstream filmmaking as you can get, but, given a fair chance, the subtle intensity of the film's tale will slowly wrap around you and pull you inside.
The story is set in an unspecified region of Latin America. Sayles says this is done on purpose to enhance the universality of the film. The scenery is at times astonishingly beautiful, especially the principal photography shot as the players venture out of the "Capital" and into the mountains.
Dr. Fuentes (Luppi) is reaching the end of a distinguished medical career. His most cherished accomplishment is the training of a group of young interns who, years before and upon the completion of this training, were sent into the surrounding villages to care for the indigenous population.
Dr. Fuentes has always assumed the continued success of his students, although he has never bothered to check on them personally. Now that his wife has passed away, he decides to journey out into the surrounding locales to visit the young doctors and apprase their progress.
The country in which the story takes place has been under continual seige by tribes of rebel guerillas. The country's own army is in constant conflict with these oppositional forces. Although the news of these battles and terrorism circulates often through the "Capital" where the doctor enjoys a peaceful and full life, he never really attaches much to it, prefering instead to live in ignorant bliss.
This is the theme at the heart of the film, one that can be applied with such great diversity as to be applicable from these war-torn fictitious lands to the daily events of our own lives. It is so often true that our eyes are not open to the bigger picture, to what is going on just outside the tiny circles in which we live day-to-day.
The film charts Dr. Fuentes' eye-opening journey as he tries to track down his students one by one, finding instead death and atrocities he had never allowed himself to believe were happening so close to home.
Men With Guns is highly successful on two levels. The entire film is full of metaphor and symbolism, most of which ring true in this often-turbulent day and age. The needle-sharp point begging an end to the futility of self-absorption and a harder look at the events surrounding our existence is driven home with tremendous clarity.
The second tier of the film is a smooth balance of natural beauty and a pleasant, continous flow that never grows laborious or tired. This is due largely to the understated, consistent acting and the sensual, mountainous surroundings that continually remind the viewer how much there is to enjoy in this world if one takes care not to ignore the problems just outside the reach of our fingertips.
Rated
Not Rated
Running Time
128 min
Playing
Landmark Greenway and Angelika Film Center