Men with Guns
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Men with Guns is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by John Sayles and starring Federico Luppi, Damián Delgado, Damián Alcázar and Mandy Patinkin. The executive producers were Lou Gonda and Jody Patton.
Set in an unnamed Latin American country, it is the story of one man's discovery of what actually happened in the political history of his nation as well as his students. It was filmed in Mexico and most of the crew were Mexican.
Plot synopsis
Dr. Fuentes (Federico Luppi) is a medical professor/doctor near his retirement and his wife has recently died. He taught a group of seven - he views this as one of his greatest accomplishments - that trains young people to provide health care to impoverished citizens in the outlying hill country, where small agricultural communities struggle to survive.
Fuentes has recently heard rumors that his former students are lost and possibly dead, so he musters up the courage and travels into the outlands to investigate. It is not until he begins his journey that he discovers a world much different than the one he had imagined existing for his students as he finds himself encountering guerrillas and soldiers. As Fuentes digs into the jungle in search of his students, he discovers that men with guns have reached them first, his students being menaced by many men with guns (Hombres Armados). This indicates military forces who use torture and execution to intimidate people. He discovers that the guerillas from opposition political groups are only marginally less aggressive.
On his journey he accumulates a few travelling companions: Padre Portillo (Damián Alcázar), a fallen priest who has lost his faith; Domingo (Damián Delgado), a deserter from the Army without a country; Conejo (Dan Rivera Gonzalez), an orphan who survives by stealing; and Graciela (Tania Cruz), a woman who has turned mute after she was raped by the military. Fuentes finds that his journey is revealing but also perilous the deeper he ventures. He ends up travelling into the hill country, looking for his last student, who is rumored to be living in an Edenic village high in the mountains, safe from the violence which has engulfed the countryside. As the doctor and his companions get closer to this half-mythical place, the journey becomes a quest for both safety and an assurance for Fuentes that his life has had some meaning.
Cast
- Federico Luppi as Dr. Fuentes
- Damián Delgado as Domingo, the soldier
- Dan Rivera Gonzalez as Conejo, the boy
- Tania Cruz as Graciela, the mute girl
- Damián Alcázar as Padre Portillo, the priest
- Mandy Patinkin as Andrew
- Kathryn Grody as Harriet
- Roverto Sosa as Bravo
- Carmen Madrid as Angela, Dr. Fuentes's daughter
- Esteban Soberanes as Raúl, Angela's fiancé
- Alejandro Springall as Carlos, Dr. Fuentes's son
