Men with Guns (1998)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Great Film overall

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

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.

In John Sayles, 1997 film Men With Guns, a widowed doctor, Humberto Fuentes (Fernando Luppi) leaves his practice in an unnamed Latin American country to search for medical students he trained to be doctors in Indian villages under the "Alliance for Progress". Filmed almost entirely in Spanish with English subtitles and based on stories by Francisco Goldman, the film is a fictional adventure story but suggestive of real events. Sayles has said, "As I was writing it, I made sure that almost all of the incidents are based on events that have happened somewhere else, almost to the exact detail." Naively unconvinced that there is any danger from a guerilla war in the interior, Dr. Fuentes travels to remote areas to discover his "legacy". Soon he finds out the reality. His tires are removed, his wallet is stolen, his life is threatened, and he cannot get any information because people won't speak to him out of fear. He sees starving people, destroyed villages, and people who have lost their hope, while the world is ignorant of what is taking place. Dr. Fuentes picks up several travelling companions along the way; and learns more about the struggles they have endured. Each has lost something close to them. Domingo (Damian Delgado), a soldier has deserted his army, Conejo (Dan Rivera Gonzales), a very wise young boy has lost his parents, an ex-priest Padre Portillo (Damian Alcazar) has lost his faith, and a native woman has lost her voice after being raped by soldiers. At the first village, a blind woman tells Dr. Fuentes that the "men killed one of his students with guns". When he asks her the reason, she says simply, "Because they had guns and we didn't". The film clearly shows the powerlessness of the Indians and peasants caught in the middle of a conflict they do not want to be involved in. Sayles shows peasants as little more than commodities who are used by the system: the Salt people, the Sugar people, the Coffee, Banana and Gum people, all surviving at subsistence level because of economic conditions beyond their control. The doctor finds out that it does not matter who is threatening the people, they are all just "men with guns" and Indians are just as capable of cruelty against their own people as government soldiers. Fuentes discovers that some of his students have been killed but keeps going from village to village to look for the rest. His expectations, however, are met only with one grim story after another. Weary but not despairing, he and his traveling companions set out on one last journey, a spiritual quest to find a city hidden in the rainforest called Circle of Heaven where the air is clear and there are no guns.Men With Guns has a point to make but makes it early and often and there is little suspense or plot development in the last half of the film. Mr. Sayles has wisely kept the story as generic as possible but there is no indication of what the issues are or what the conflict is all about. It is well known that civilians and "innocent bystanders" are often the biggest victims in war. Beyond that, what is the film saying? Is it that resistance movements who might be fighting an uphill battle against a brutal dictator should lay down their arms? Aside from the problems I had with the issues, the characters come across as types rather than real people. Oblivious American tourists, played by Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, are too laughable to even warrant being called stereotypes. Though credit must be given for tackling a subject that most filmmakers would rather not hear about, Men With Guns is overlong and lacking in dramatic impact. Eventually, it veers off into magical realism with much self-consciousness but little realism and no magic.

I just fell upon this movie while watching the IFC channel and I hadn't been back from Guatemala for long. After living there amongst the natives I was able to get to know them better and understand their culture more. Seeing this film brought back a lot of those memories and reminded me of the many stories I heard of the army's genocidal tendencies towards the indigenous people of Guatemala. The cinematography for this film is simple, but it shows the beautiful landscapes and run down third world towns in a way to almost show us the same details that we would see if we were really there. We have to remember that the characters portrayed in this movie are very real, they may not have the same names, but they do exist. Even the war vets who have gone to levels so low we cannot even imagine. If you would like to understand what went on in Southern Mexico and Guatemala during the 80's, I would strongly recommend this film. It left a very strong impression on me.

"Men With Guns" follows an aging physician as he goes in search of doctors whom he has trained, as his legacy to humanity, to serve the Indians living in the remote jungles of a fictitious region somewhere in southern Mexico or Central America. An odyssey film, "MWG" is a chronicle of the doctor's wandering and happenstance encounters with native Indians, government soldiers, guerrillas, sundry civilians, and even an American archeologist. The film features indigenous actors, lush jungle traveloguesque scenery, a variety of unusual situations, some reflections on human nature, and a smattering of philosophizing. Not the usual cinematic fare, this film will have narrow appeal and will be appreciated for its exotic milieu as well as its story, drama, and intrigue.