Grade: B "John Sayles, America's most restlessly independent independent filmmaker, goes to a nameless Latin American country to dramatize the cost of war, proverty, and political upheaval. And as usual, he builds a closely plotted, emotionally controlled, highly serious drama--one that rewards audience concentration but cuts little slack for stragglers. Added challenge: It's mostly in Spanish, with subtitles."--Entertainment Weekly

Rated R 126m
DIR: John Sayles.
CAST: Frederico Luppi, Damian Delgado, Dan Rivera Gonzales, Tania Crus, Damian Alcazar, Mandy Patinkin, Kathryn Grody. 1998

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"Providing serious comic relief are South Side native Mandy Patinkin and his real-life wife, Kathryn Grody, as a pair of American tourists fascinated by ancient ruins and totally oblivious to the current conditions.

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"Along the way, they cross paths with two American tourists (Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody), whose superficial opinions contribute refreshing comic relief. If this had been a glossy Hollywood production instead of an independent labor of love, the two Americans would have been central characters instead of window dressing. But such a film wouldn't come close to having the impact of Men With Guns, even if it were in English."--Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y.

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"Men With Guns is slow-paced trip, with a lot of translated conversation, and Sayles keeps it pure. The actors are said to be speaking in four dialects, and there's nothing about the film, other than the ill-conceived couple (Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody) used as comic relief, to give away its American origin. Sayles has never been a visual stylist, and his latest film is as straightforward and plot-bound as any of the earlier ones."--Los Angeles Times

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"With gentle irony and controlled outrage, Sayles (who wrote the screenplay in Spanish) takes us into the world of salt vendors, car thieves, and towns called Dirty Faces (Caras Sucias), where the only visitors are either armed men sent to enforce the status quo, or tourists (like those played by Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody) too stupid to take note of their surroundings. The scenario and the acting are absolutely blistering, in a magnificently restrained style reminiscent of B. Traven's jungle novels."--East Bay Express (Thanks to Kendal B.)

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"Despite the smart-alecky edge to some of the dialigue, MWG has an implicit, brutal sanctimony ... The doctor proves to be so out of it that he's unworthy of exemplifying what Goldman calls "the dilemma of the conscious liberal" caught between political extremes. Indeed, the hero is almost as irrelevant as the picture's comic-relief tourists (Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody): enlightened, educated Americans who end up looking ridiculous because they're not sufficiently politically engaged. The only ones Sayles gives a pass to are the remaining unspoiled Indians. He may be a man of humane concerns, but in MWG his attitudes are strictly brown and white. "--San Francisco Weekly (Thanks to Kendal B.)

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"Sayles (Lone Star) digs into the underbelly of Third World culture for this ambitious spiritual quest. A Latin American doctor ventures out of his sheltered urban life to locate his former students, who have gone missing in the impoverished countryside where they practice medicine. He gets caught in the crossfire between the military and guerilla factions and is joined in his search by a series of mysterious drifters (as well as Patinkin's obnoxious American tourist). This heavy-themed, subtitled film moves slowly at times but achieves great depth,at once heart-breaking and unsentimental. "--San Francisco Weekly (Thanks to SmittyNag.)

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"Yarn unfolds as a road movie, with each stop representing a crucial phase in the doctor's political awakening. The tale gets richer and more interesting when Fuentes and Conejo are joined by Domingo (Damian Delgado), an army deserter with no home or destination, and Padre Portillo (Damian Alcazar), a defrocked priest. Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody play one-dimensional characters -- naive American tourists -- used mostly for comic relief."--Variety

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"But the North American tourist couple, played by real-life husband-and-wife Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, stick out like a McDonald's in the jungle.

They're there to remind us that Americans may be cocooned against other people's grief. They're nice, emotionally uninvolved folks - Mr. Sayles calls them Teflon tourists - but they're a bit jarring, as if they wandered in from another jungle shoot."--Dallas Morning News

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"Some critics have found Sayles' two comic-relief American-tourist characters (Mandy Patinkin in quirky Chicago Hope mode and his wife, Kathryn Grody) offensive and distracting; I would say to them, "Find me any gringo tourist who doesn't deserve skewering, and maybe I'll believe you." --Review by Jim Aquino

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"Men With Guns' human look at inhumane conditions "--Daily Southtown

film.com Review by Tom Keough

film.com Review by John Hartl

Review by Roger Ebert

IMDB Review