Men With Guns

Starring:Paul Sorvino
Studio: Platinum Disc
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Stunningly beautiful, sad, insightful.
Decepcionante.
"I obviously don't believe in heaven ... but I can give you a tour of hell."
Human Rights
100% Guatemala

Men With Guns
Starring: Federico Luppi , Damián Delgado , Dan Rivera González , Tania Cruz , and Damián Alcázar
Director: John Sayles
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000AMU29
Release Date: 2003-09-23

Amazon.com

It is impossible to predict where John Sayles will travel at any given time in his film career, but Men with Guns is one of the director's most surprising journeys. Shot in Spanish, with a little-known cast, the film is a beguiling mix of the political and the mythical. A well-heeled doctor (Argentine actor Federico Luppi) in an unnamed Latin country leaves his comfortable home, in search of former medical students who may be caught in the political violence of the countryside. Although Sayles casts an unflinching eye on the issues of poverty and "willful ignorance" (embodied by the doctor, a well-meaning but complacent man), Men with Guns has a lush visual style and a great grab-bag of songs on the soundtrack. It's a slow and sometimes dreamlike movie, but by the time we reach the end it feels as though something special has transpired. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Stunningly beautiful, sad, insightful........2006-08-21

As the Peruvian's review indicates, there are certainly Latin Americans who don't want to face part of their political reality, just as there are US citizens who like to deny or rationalize the violence of the United States of North America. The "Indian Wars" of the US empire continue as this film on the oppression of Guatemalan Mayan Indians reveals. While President Clinton did offer a near-apology for our decades of funding and organizing Guatemala's dirty war that killed 200,000 people, our corporatocracy continues to exploit the region and to wage economic warfare via NAFTA, CAFTA and the World Bank.
"Men With Guns" beautifully shows all who care the sort of brutal madness that has been taking place in Central America. I've shared this film with Guatemalan immigrants I know, and they confirm the suffering they endured at the hands of our proxy forces. These US taxpayer funded troops wiped out Guatemalan villages in the same way the Nazis wiped out Russian villages. It's such a disgrace that it happened, and that so few Americans know about it. This film offers us a tool to raise awareness, and civic groups like Global Exchange and Madre offer us opportunities to act in solidarity with the victims of US foreign policy.
I'd also recommend books by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Rigoberta Menchu (who, predictably, had a Yale professor conduct a campaign to cast doubt on her credibility - a standard psy-op tactic of our military establishment) and the DVD documentary, "When the Mountains Tremble."
Also see "Guatemala: Never Again!", the official report of the human rights office of the archdiocese of Guatemala. Sadly, Bishop Juan Girardi was murdered a couple days after turning in that report.

Decepcionante........2006-06-22

Entusiasmado por los comentarios previos decidí adquirir esta película.Que decepción.Lenta,aburrida con una adaptación de guión a mi criterio mal estructurada.La dirección de actores,pésima,pese a tener a Luppi y a Damián Alcazar que es el único que se salva en su corta actuación.
Pensé que tendría algo que ver con "La Ley de Herodes",extraordinaria película de Luis Estrada,pero absolutamente nada que ver.
Recomendable sólo para tus enemigos.

"I obviously don't believe in heaven ... but I can give you a tour of hell.".......2006-05-28

After the death of his wife, Dr. Humberto Fuentes (Federico Luppi) begins to reflect on one of the more satisfying aspects to his career--a period when he trained 7 young doctors. These doctors were sent out into rural regions of this unnamed Latin American country to provide medical care to the indigenous people. Dr Fuentes considers his role in the training of the young doctors his "legacy" but one day in the market he catches sight of one of the young doctors who is now involved in black market activity. Fuentes questions his former student who tells him, "you are the most learned man I've met, but also the most ignorant."

Fuentes mentions his idea of searching for his former students to one of his patients--a military officer--and he's warned not to go due to political trouble with guerrillas. But when Fuentes questions this, the officer ridicules any notion of skirmishes or atrocities noting that any stories Fuentes may have heard are just rumours--after all, "the common people love drama." In spite of these warnings, Fuentes leaves his comfortable life behind and begins a literal and figurative journey towards the truth.

Everywhere he goes, Fuentes hears of 'the men with guns'--the men who bring death and violence in their wake. Fuentes encounters various bands of people who are named for what they produce--the Salt People, the Banana People, the Gum People, the Coffee People, and they all suffer from displacement and starvation. As Fuentes travels farther from the city into the rural areas, he picks up several traveling companions--a former priest (Damian Alcazar), an army deserter (Damian Delgado), and an orphan (Dan Rivera Gonzales). The priest has lost his religious faith, the deserter is haunted by memories of his actions, and the orphan was kept as a mascot in an abandoned school that was used as a torture centre. It is through the stories of these fellow travelers that Fuentes is able to finally piece together his former students' fate.

Fuentes also meets two intrepid American tourists, and at first when they ask Fuentes about atrocities, he repeats the phrase "the common people love drama." Yet by the end of the film, Fuentes now carries the terrible burden of his new knowledge, while the Americans--symbolically remain in a sheath of ignorance--blissfully unaware of the murder, violence, genocide and torture that surround them. "Men With Guns" addresses several themes--complicity, violence, and guilt. This isn't a feel-good film by any stretch of the imagination, but it's certainly a film that haunts the viewer long after the credits roll. John Sayles is an amazing director, and of all his films, "Men With Guns" is his most powerful and most painful. DVD extras include: commentary from director John Sayles--displacedhuman

Human Rights.......2006-03-12

When a civl war rages through a country, the line between the good guys and the bad ones is blurred. Such is the case in Men with Guns. Both sides in conflict abuse others, even the innocent ones, to secure their goals.

100% Guatemala.......2005-02-22

The basis of the movie was taken from a secondary character in Francisco Goldman's book "The Long Night of White Chickens", which is about Guatemala during the civil war, also the cover photo is the work of a Guatemalan photographer, Palma. Excellent movie.

Average customer rating:

Men With Guns
Starring: Donal Logue , William MacDonald , Max Perlich , Paul Sorvino , and Gregory Sporleder
Director: Kari Skogland
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Men With Guns

ASIN: B00062IXHO
Release Date: 2004-12-07

Men With Guns (Hombres Armados) [PAL/REGION 2 DVD. Import-Spain]

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Men With Guns (Hombres Armados) [PAL/REGION 2 DVD. Import-Spain]
Director: John Sayles
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
ASIN: B000NV2R66

Product Description

Dr. Fuentes is a man in search of his legacy seven medical students he trained to work in impoverished native villages. But early in his odyssey he begins to suspect that "men with guns" got there first, and with every step he is confronted by bloody realities he had long ignored. Now, his is an almost desperate quest, but for a mythical village deep in the rainforest one last refuge of hope called Cerca del Cielo. Written and directed by John Sayles, this incredible journey of the heart and mind takes us into uncharted regions of hopelessness and unparalleled dimensions of brutality. Federico Luppi stars with a powerful ensemble cast featuring Mandy Patinkin, Dan Rivera Gonzales, Damian Delgado, Damian Alcazar, and Tania Cruz, in a searing drama from a daring filmmaker acclaimed for such provocative favorites as City of Hope, Lone Star, and Passion Fish.

Charlie Rose with Adrian Lestler; Jack Valenti; John Sayles; Esa-Pekka Salonen (March 20, 1998)

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Charlie Rose with Adrian Lestler; Jack Valenti; John Sayles; Esa-Pekka Salonen (March 20, 1998)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Description

First, Adrian Lestler, one of the stars of Primary Colors, the acclaimed film directed by Mike Nichols, discusses why the film has been so successful. Then, Jack Valenti, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, talks to Charlie about rising prices in the film industry and reflects on 1997 which has been a record year for movie attendance and box office sales. Also, filmmaker John Sayles, who was responsible for Apollo 13 and Lone Star, talks to Charlie about Men With Guns, a politically conscious movie, on a small budget in a foreign language without a star. Finally, Helsinki-born conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen discusses his project, Filmharmonic, which brings together teams of Hollywood directors and composers to make short films accompanied by live musical scores.

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