Fear and Loathing in the middle of Reagan's Civil War

It's flawed and nearly self-destructs, but remains a harrowing, powerful, in your face testosterone fueled film with some fine performances. It's Stone's best film.

Oliver Stone got into the car and pressed hard on the gas pedal. He doesn't let up. Even when he insists on turning the film into a preachy message film he does so ferociously. All of Stone's strengths and wretched weaknesses are in evidence here. In recent years he's taken some of his own strengths and bankrupted himself on awful things like On Any Given Sunday. So here's the film that will remind you what an exciting, take no prisoners kind of film-maker he once was. He was not interested in telling stories in a safe and compromised fashion. He wanted to be raw and brutal and still give people some of what they wanted. No you can't have it both ways, but Stone tries to do that. He almost succeeded here.

Stone won an Oscar for his screenplay for Midnight Express. He does the same type of controversial revision of events in Salvador as he did there. However he's not merely re-telling a series of events, he's using slightly changed characters from real life to thrust us not only into Salvador but into the world of a cynical burnt out journalist.

Stone gives us James Woods as Richard Boyle a wannabe Hunter S. Thompson who wants to get credit for his Fear and Loathing as the last man out of Cambodia exploits he never got credit for.

He's a burnt out mess of a human being and barely a journalist at all. He doesn't get the go ahead to write or take pictures on assignment about Salvador, but when the last vestiges of his personal life is flushed down the toilet, he takes off with his friend a disk jockey named Dr. Rock (James Belushi)on a road trip into hell.

Hell being El Salvador. They quickly get into the middle of things and their pop pills, smoke dope get drunk and get some cheap w-hores road trip turns into a dangerous, harrowing and eye opening journey for Boyle.

Eventually he realizes he loves a Salvadorean woman (Elpedia Carrillo) and wants to do the right thing by her, and become a better more responsible person. He'll even try to be a good Catholic for her amidst the guerilla fighting, military and cia types hanging about. John Savage plays a photographer who wants to get the type of war picture that will adorn the cover of Time or Newsweek and maybe make the public care about El Salvador. He thrusts himself in dangerous situations to accomplish his task. Eventually Boyle is face to face with Arch Bishop Romero when he get assassinated. In the middle of things, Boyle wants to get the story of his life, help his buddy get the picture of his life, and get Maria our of Salvador.

It begins as a formless character study and settles into being more and more an examination of Salvador politics and attrocities like the death squads and the murder and rape of the Maryknoll nuns.

There's a ten minute segment of the film almost at the end of the film which is full of cliche's, becomes suddenly very corny and then moves into a long overly written scene where Boyle discusses Salvador politics with a North like military advisor and a state department/CIA type character. It stops the film dead in its track. The other two characters in the too long and too late in the film scene are cardboard cut out types performed with all the conviction of a run of the mill t.v. movie. There's also a scene in which Woods has to stop by and make love to Maria... perhaps for the last time that is bad movie corn, complete with swelling movie music.

Thankfully, if you don't let these ten minutes destroy the film, there's a very effective tragic final scene which helps the film recover from it's mistakes.

The film has plenty of Stone excess, but with Woods at the peak of what he does best playing a character that plays to his strengths as an actor, most of the film works in spasmodic energetic jerks that ring true enough most of the time. It seems to stem directly from Woods' performance alternating one moment from comedy then to bitter cynicism and then a disarming humble shaggy doggedness comes through. It sure isn't ever a pretty or calm picture, though. James Belushi, has never been better, John Savage as John Cassady, the photographer, Cindy Gibb as the sympathetic humanitarian worker, and Michael Murphy as the ambassador aren't ask to do nearly as much as Woods but are well cast in their roles.

The film remains a powerful affecting effort from a director who once made exciting flawed films full of passion, energy, and an almost forgivable over earnestness. He's became a parody worthy shadow of his former self in recent years, but Stone was once an exciting new talent to watch. Salvador is not as easy to like as the more professionally accomplished Platoon, but for me it's his best film.

Chris Jarmick, Author (The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder Available end of December 2000)