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Salvador: Special Edition
MGM
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 21232 DVD
- Running time: 115 minutes
- Year: 1986
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 24 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, Italian
- Subtitles: 5 languages available
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: “Into the Valley of Death” documentary, Deleted and ExtendedScenes, Theatrical Trailer, “On-the-set” Photo Gallery, Director’s Commentary
Director:
- Oliver Stone
(Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, Heaven and Earth, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, Platoon, Salvador, Talk Radio, U-Turn, Wall Street)
Producer:
- Gerald Green and Oliver Stone
Screenplay:
- Oliver Stone and Richard Boyle
Music :
- Georges Delerue
Cast :
- Richard Boyle: James Woods
Doctor Rock: James Belushi
Ambassador Thomas Kelly: Michael Murphy
John Cassady: John Savage
Maria: Elpidia Carrillo
Major Max: Tony Plana
Jack Morgan, CIA: Colby Chester
Cathy Moore: Cynthia Gibb
Salvador opens with the news report from 1980:
The confrontation started when students, workers and peasants linked to theguerrillas occupied foreign embassies adn took over the National cathedral in thecapital. In two months, more than 3000 people have disappeared.
Government spokemen attribute the murders to left-wing Marxist terroristswhile left-wing spokemen point to right-wing death squads.”
And so begins another of Oliver Stone‘s masterpieces.
Richard Boyle and John Cassady survey the mass graves.In a story based on the journalist’s events, James Woods plays saidjourno, Richard Boyle. His life is in tatters, stemming from being evictedfrom his flat, his wife has left him and taken their child back to her homecountry of Italy, he’s lost his job and he’s been thrown in jail for non-paymentof forty-three parking violations, not to mention the lack of car insurance.With his similarly-with-an-other-half best friend, radio DJ Doctor Rock (James Belushi),they head off to El Salvador on the promise of cheap booze, drugs and “virginsthat will sit on your face for seven bucks”.
As soon as they arrive, though, they find that the natives don’t like thepress and turn on them putting them in the first of many positions which willthreaten the lives of themselves and their colleagues, thus requiring a callin the most extreme of circumstances to Ambassador Thomas Kelly (Michael Murphy).
While there Boyle does make nice with contacts and friends still in the areaincluding Newsweek photographer and reporter John Cassady (John Savage),Catholic lay worker Cathy Moore (Cynthia Gibb) and Boyle’s long-termlove Maria (Elpidia Carrillo), whom he desperately wants to bringback to the US for the kind of life she will never find in El Salvador.
To go into any more depth about the film would spoil any surprise moments -and the film is packed with them. Suffice to say, that if you enjoy watchinga movie that will make you think, contains a first-rate cast and script, expertdirection and even with some humourous moments, then you will be doing yourselfa disservice if you miss out on this one. It’s also one of the lesser-talked-aboutfilms of Stone and one of the least I expected to get a special edition DVDrelease but I’m damn glad it did.
Richard Boyle says a prayer for a dead friend.Presented in the original 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio, the pictureisn’t 100% perfect, but any glitches or scratches are minor and don’t stopthe striking effect the film has on you from getting through.The average bitrate is 5.6Mb/s, peaking above 9Mb/s and varying wildly throughout.
I have no complaints with the sound, a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack,be it for the scenes of war or the higher number that involve dialogue in themain. Every single one builds on the tension that’s gone before. The Italiandialogue is in Dolby Surround only.
The extras begin with a 63-minute documentary, “Into the Valley of Death”,presented in non-anamorphic 16:9 and looks at how the film came together withchat from both Oliver Stone and the real Richard Boyle, as wellas stars James Woods and James Belushi.
There are four Deleted and Extended Scenes totalling around 13 minutes,all in 4:3 fullscreen with questionable quality but worth a look nonetheless,a 2-minute 16:9 anamorphic Theatrical Trailer, a 46-strong “On-the-set”Photo Gallery and a feature-length Director’s Commentary.
The film is split up with 24 chapters which is fine, there are subtitles infive languages: English, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Danish; and themain menu is animated and scored, while the rest are the opposite.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.