Simply excellent depiction of life for the Indian population of the mountain regions of most of Latin America. This film is based in a fictional nation somewhere in south America, but the events that unfold are everything but fiction, in fact they are based very closely on true events as they were described by people who actually lived it. A doctor, raised in the city and ignorant of the terror that exists outside the "civilized" part of his nation, sends a group of students on a mission to educate the Indians - this is his self-proclaimed legacy. When he finds that one of his students has abandoned the legacy he sets out to find the rest. What he discovers is a brutal trail of murder, torture, and rape. Was his legacy such the excellent idea that he claimed at the beginning? The murders seem to be in the hands of no one group, they are attributed simply to the men with guns: the soldiers, and the guerillas fighting them. The Indians are stuck in the middle, often subjected to torture and rape by both sides. The justification is always that they deserve the suffering because they are helping the other side. However, refusal to help means an equally brutal death, so they are left without choice. There are no uplifting fake Hollywood gimmicks in Men With Guns, no cheerful dialogue, and certainly no "happily ever after" endings - it is simply the truth about the life for the Indian people, not only in Guatemala, Mexico, or Colombia, but also their life in the United States not so long ago. This is a truly powerful film that should not be missed by anyone!
Review of Men with Guns
