Salvador

UK Released DVD/Blu-Ray item. It MAY NOT play on regular US DVD/Blu-Ray player. You may need a multi-region US DVD/Blu-Ray player to play this item. Salvador recounts the conflict between the peasant revolution and the US-backed death squads in El Salvador in the early 1980s as seen through the eyes of American journalist Richard Boyle. Telling unpalatable truths condensed into intense fiction, Oliver Stone’s film is typically confrontational, the real Boyle writing the source material for Stone’s savage screenplay. The journalist is brought to life by James Woods in a brilliant hyper-kinetic performance: his powerful commitment to the truth balances his self-destructive, drink, drugs and danger-fuelled personality. Providing excellent support is James Belushi as partner in debauchery Dr Rock, while Stone delivers the most spectacular $4 million movie imaginable by conning the El Salvadorian military into lending tanks, planes and helicopters for a film which brands many of their leaders as war criminals. Genuinely radical cinema, Salvador blisters with moral fury, setting it beside The Killing Fields (1984) as a modern classic. On the DVD: Without spoiling the plot, the original trailer is so compelling it makes you want to watch the film again even if you’ve just seen it. The are four deleted/extended scenes which add a little more political background–unfortunately the legendary orgy/severed-ears seen is not among them. Parts, though not the whole of this scene, appear in the exceptionally good 62-minute retrospective documentary which covers the extraordinary making of the film and the horrors of the political background in depth (a technical advisor was shot dead on a tennis court). Oliver Stone delivers the best commentary tracks around and this is no exception as he presents a masterclass in gonzo-guerrilla filmmaking. There is also a gallery of 46 behind-the-scenes stills. Given the circumstances, Robert Ri