Political issues are a common theme in John Sayles's movies, and "Men with Guns" is one of the most significant. Set in an unnamed Latin American country, Dr. Humberto Fuentes (Federico Luppi) has lived a privileged life and trained his students to tend to people out in the countryside. To be certain, Fuentes has never had any strong political convictions. But when he learns that his students have gotten murdered, he goes to investigate. He learns that the "men with guns" have been indiscriminately murdering the peasant population. The "men with guns" are any people who carry weapons: soldiers, rebels, or otherwise. The point is that to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, there's practically no difference between government troops and rebels.
The movie has many qualities that make one forget that it's American-made. Aside from the mostly Latin American cast -- Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody play a pair of American tourists who are completely ignorant of the local culture -- the movie incorporates magical realism into its plot. Also, while most of the dialog is in Spanish, some scenes show people speaking Mayan, Kuna, Nahuatl and Tzotzil. But the movie's basic gist (Dr. Fuentes's eventual search for a village that has escaped the bloodshed) is summed up by a repeated line: "It's good to go where there are no white people." This is definitely one that I recommend.
The movie has many qualities that make one forget that it's American-made. Aside from the mostly Latin American cast -- Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody play a pair of American tourists who are completely ignorant of the local culture -- the movie incorporates magical realism into its plot. Also, while most of the dialog is in Spanish, some scenes show people speaking Mayan, Kuna, Nahuatl and Tzotzil. But the movie's basic gist (Dr. Fuentes's eventual search for a village that has escaped the bloodshed) is summed up by a repeated line: "It's good to go where there are no white people." This is definitely one that I recommend.