Salvador

1
Salvador

• Politics in Film
• Braunwarth

2
Salvador

• Oliver Stone Film, 1986
• Based on real life experiences of journalist Rick
  Boyle covering the brutal civil war in El
  Salvador in the early 1980s
• Many of the events actually occurred
• Killing of Archbishop Romero
• Attack on the nuns
• Massive killing by paramilitary death squads
  (with U.S. military and financial support) and
  dumping of bodies at El Playon
• By 1984 65,000 civilians were killed and
• 750,000 fled the country, 500,000 ended up in the
  U.S.

3
Salvador

• Note the frenetic music and visuals (especially
  in the opening scene) to create tension
• Note the differences in color, lighting, mood
  when covering the rebels in the countryside and
  the military in the cities

4
Salvador

• Note how the Reagan Doctrine led to our
  involvement in El Salvador
• The characters in Salvador each epitomize
  different perspectives about the means and the
  ends U.S. foreign policy
• Richard Boyle?
• That we should not hurt others in the pursuit of
  an ideology
• Jack Morgan, Col. Hyde, and Reagan?
• We need to be vigilant in our fight against
  communism or the communists will take over
• We cant be distracted by concerns like human
  rights

5
Salvador

• Note the contrasting perspectives of Archbishop
  Romero and Major Max
• What does Romero represent?
• The concerns of the poor and the needy who are
  just trying to survive
• Why is he considered a subversive?
• His concerns interfere with the goals of the U.S.
  and the fight against communism
• What is the purpose of Major Max in the film?
• That the U.S. is willing to support a fascist
  thug if it furthers our goals

6
Salvador

• Contrast the morality of Boyle and Doc with the
  more well-polished U.S. citizens
• What message is Stone trying to send?
• That personal private morality is a private
  affair and much less important than our public
  morality toward others
• How do the motives of Pauline the TV journalist
  contrast with those of photo-journalists Richard
  Boyle and John Cassidy?
• Pauline is only concerned about ratings by Boyle
  and Cassidy want to get out the truth
• Reminiscent of what other films what other films
  weve seen?
• What does this say about the information we
  receive from the mass news media?

7
Salvador

• Again, note the use of a reporter to carry the
  storyline in both Green Berets and Salvador
• Both undergo something of a catharsis
• In the Green Berets the reporter comes to adopt
  the U.S. position
• In Salvador, Boyle becomes less egocentric and
  more concerned with the plight of others
• How does this reflect the theme of the film?
• That we need to worry about the well being of
  those we are supposed to be helping

8
Salvador

• Why the references to Vietnam throughout the
  film?
• Again the need to fight communism and that El
  Salvador might be a similar quagmire (it wasnt)
• Is our current conflict in Iraq more like El
  Salvador or Vietnam?
• The level of troop involvement in a country
  without a functioning government is more similar
  to the situation in Vietnam
• One pentagon proposal calls for U.S. special
  forces to train Iraqi para-military units
  (patterned after the ones in El Salvador) to
  prosecute the war for us (like in El Salvador)