Salvador

Character actors do most of the heavy lifting in Hollywood. A little more rough-around-the edges than the primped and pampered leads, their job is to provide detail without distraction. So it’s rare to find one elevated above their station like James Woods is in Salvador (1986), Oliver Stone’s pre-Platoon dramatic thriller set against a Reagan-era backdrop even more politically confusing than the situation in Vietnam.

To be fair, Woods was on quite a roll in the ‘80s. Despite a face one would never call traditionally handsome (or maybe because of it), he was cast as the flawed protagonist in several critically acclaimed productions including Videodrome, Once Upon a Time in America and True Believer. Like a lot of character actors, Woods never seemed to be acting at all…he simply blended in like a pre-existing cinematic condition. But Salvador gave him the chance to lay it all on the table with a character unlikable enough to be the villain in almost any other movie.

A perpetually struggling journalist with a long history of failed former wives, girlfriends and professional relationships, Richard Boyle (Woods playing a “watered down” version of the real McCoy) has hit rock bottom once again and heads straight into the turmoil of El Salvador with his friend and current meal ticket Doctor Rock (James Belushi), a San Francisco DJ, in tow. Hoping to score a stringer job for one of the news networks, Boyle learns that the situation is even more complicated than he feared with Communist rebels fighting against the U.S. backed military government. While the two sides trade strategies and gunfire, the general population, including Boyle’s girlfriend, Maria, (Elpidia Carrillo) suffer at the hands of corrupt and misguided governments who fight over politics rather than people.

Oliver Stone is not a subtle director. His tendency to rub one’s nose in the message of the moment can be overwhelming at times. But in Salvador it’s merely an infrequent distraction thanks to James Woods’ fascinating (and Oscar nominated) performance as a self-described “weasel” with a heart of gold. The character of Richard Boyle would make for an interesting movie in almost any environment, but Stone guides him towards a moral, romantic and spiritual epiphany amidst the chaos, discovering under fire that there’s more to life than one’s own welfare.

Far from a sappy “come to Jesus” moment, Boyle’s transformation is full of rage, profanity, drugs, alcohol and the loss of more than a few close friends. In the film’s most ambitious sequence, a fellow freelance photographer (played perfectly by John Savage) risks everything for one selfless and selfish moment caught on film. It’s that balance of good and evil that seems to obsess Stone in most of his work, trying to establish order amidst anarchy. And Woods embodies that dichotomy in a way that no well-groomed leading man ever could.

Twilight Time’s 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray (available exclusively at ) is a wonderful hi-def upgrade. The location photography – shot in Mexico to avoid the still complicated situation in El Salvador at the time of filming – is dingy, dirty and sweaty in the best possible way. Extras include a commentary track by Stone and well-produced Making Of that share some incredible production stories, plus deleted scenes, a theatrical trailer and an isolated score track.