Salvador

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Oliver Stone directs. Robert Richardson behind the camera. Georges Delerue scores. Claire Simpson cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America, Mexico. Dialogue in Spanish, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $4.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Earned back only 33% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
• 340 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Spanish, English.
• 5International production across 3 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America, Mexico.
• 6Directed by Oliver Stone, shot by Robert Richardson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 7Original score by Georges Delerue. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 8Editor Claire Simpson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 9James Woods and Jim Belushi and Michael Murphy carry the top of the cast.
• 10Marketing tagline: "Dateline: 1980, El Salvador. Correspondent: Richard Boyle, Photojournalist - Guatemala, Iran, Vietnam, Chile, Belfast, Lebanon, Cambodia...".
• 11IMDB entry: tt0091886 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 12Classified under 22 themes, including "guerrilla warfare", "journalist", "assassination", "civil war".

The technical file

Cinematography

Robert Richardson

Original score

Georges Delerue

Editing

Claire Simpson

Production design

Bruno Rubeo

Costume design

Kathryn Morrison

Makeup / hair

Bertha Chiu

Sound

David Lewis Yewdall

Stunt coordinator

Bill Catching

Runtime

123 min · 2h 3m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$4,500,000

Box office

$1,500,000

Return

33% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Salvador (1986) ↗

Also by

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• 
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• 
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• 
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• 
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• 
  The Doors

  1991 · ★ 7.1

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

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Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Salvador (1986) Original Trailer [HD]

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2014-09-25
  ★ 9/10

  You've become just like them. Based around the real life experiences of journalist Richard Boyle, we are in 1980 and Boyle is not only in crisis torn El Salvador, he's also in it up to his neck. It sometimes gets forgotten just what a great director Oliver Stone can be, strip away his ability to ruffle feathers on a seemingly perennial basis, and you find some pieces of work that are stark and striking for all the right reasons. Salvador is one such film, sometimes criminally forgotten, it remains to this day a searing tale of tension amongst the troubles of a Latin American hell hole. Boyle is right in amongst the implosion of a civil war, death squads and guerrillas from each side pull him from pillar to post as he tries to protect his Salvadorian girlfriend, while his friends and connections all are in peril purely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Salvador triumphs mainly because Stone and his team have managed to capture all the building emotions of the main players, it's not just Boyle, it's the American government types, the press itself, and of course the crumbling Salvador people themselves, all things mold together in one big worrying pot boiler. James Woods plays Boyle and he is magnificent, managing to make an unlikeable character sympathetic, Woods (with Stone prompting for sure) clearly challenging himself to play out a career high. James Belushi also delivers his career best work, perfectly brusque and oblivious, his Dr Rock is the perfect foil for Woods' emotive Boyle. Then there is plaudits for Elpidia Carillo as Maria, charged with being the love interest amongst this carnage, she layers it perfectly for a very memorable performance. Salvador bizarrely is at times a humorous picture, but the laughs are all of the uneasy kind, because ultimately Stone's attempt at getting into the nitty-gritty of troubled El Salvador, is a harsh, and at times, a humbling experience. 9/10

  Read full review ↓
• GenerationofSwine2023-01-14
  ★ 10/10

  With almost all things Oliver Stone...it gets political, and because of that you have people reviewing the politics and NOT the movie. Hate it or love it because of the politics... ...and politically I agree with the message in Salvador, but I'm going to try to keep all of that out of this and too the side. However, I do want to mention that the film dramatizes a few stories that should have gotten better coverage in the US. Moving on, though, this is not unlike Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas...if it went entirely dark and realistic. You have a journalist and his buddy in a Hawaiian T-Shirt not going to the glitz and glam of Vegas in search of the American Dream, but rather going to Central America in search of the American financed atrocities. And it is vaguely based on a true story and vaguely covers actual events from a dramatized perspective while asking the audience to be morally outraged at what they see...and it is horrific. But when you really get here is WTC and Snowden on the other end, the movies following Alexander are Stone moving away from his cinematic hallmarks that made his films so great. Salvador, but contrast, is Stone moving towards his beloved tropes, you can see him developing his technique in Salvador, and that almost works as a build-up onto itself if you're a fan of Oliver Stone's movies. The dramatic cuts, and the tidal waves of A and B list supporting characters are still a few movies away, but you have a solid development of what Stone movies will one day become, but you have it with a young Oliver Stone intensity. He was working hard back then, and it shows in Salvador. Nothing about the film is phoned in and it works if you agree with his politics or not, as a dramatic war film of the highest grade. But, don't take any of that into account if you are a film major... because what you have here is Stone, crafting a war movie, on a shoe string budget, and pulling it off brilliantly. That should be the lesson any film student walks away with. Forget what the movie was about for a moment, look at the final product and then look at what he had to work with.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Hemdale

  GB

• CI

  Cinema '85

  US

• 

  Estudios Churubusco Azteca

  MX

Key crew

• CastingBob Morones
• Production DesignBruno Rubeo
• ProducerOliver Stone
• Executive ProducerJohn Daly
• Costume DesignKathryn Morrison
• EditorClaire Simpson
• Executive ProducerDerek Gibson
• ProducerGerald Green
• Sound RecordistPhilip Perkins
• Sound Effects EditorR.J. Palmer
• Sound DesignerDavid Lewis Yewdall
• Sound Re-Recording MixerNeil Brody
• HairstylistBertha Chiu
• Sound RecordistJonathan D. Evans
• Sound RecordistAllen Hurd
• HairstylistHumberto Escamilla
• Sound Re-Recording MixerBill Mumford
• Sound Re-Recording MixerBob Minkler
• Makeup ArtistElvira Oropeza
• Sound Effects EditorF. Hudson Miller
• Stunt CoordinatorBill Catching
• Prosthetic Makeup ArtistGordon J. Smith
• Makeup ArtistGionilda Stolee
• Post Production SupervisorMichael Bennett

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• guerrilla warfare
• journalist
• assassination
• civil war
• loss of loved one
• dictator
• war correspondent
• revolution
• civil rights
• dictatorship
• press
• based on true story
• road trip
• el salvador
• reporter
• execution
• massacre
• alcoholic
• 1980s
• confession booth
• photojournalist
• violence

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere1986-02-28· Santa Barbara Film Festival
• Premiere1986-03-05R· New York City
• Theatrical1986-04-23R

Also known as

International titles

• Salvador (1986)US
• Salvador - O Martírio de um PovoBR