Salvador is agonzo-eye's view of the war in El Salvador, co-written by directorOliver Stone and journalist Richard Boyle, the film's protagonist. Stone(who wrote Midnight Express, Year of the Dragon and Scarface, and wroteand directed Platoon) is clearly a bird with two wings-a left one, and aright one. Perhaps it is because his anti-fascist notions are so lackingin sentiment that we barely can recognize them in Salvador. The filmcareens toward anarchy; what comes through is the image of a countrythat has become a post-apocalyptic hell where a truly ugly American, thedissolute journalist (played by James Woods), is in his element exactly.His crudeness is of course more than met by the bloody machismo of themen whose empty brains and loaded guns oppress an entire people; but hisown macho disdain drowns out Stone's well-documented outrage, makingSalvador a problematic, much debated entry into the anti-Vietnam/CentralAmerican war canon.