Salvador is a fascinating film which presents in vivid detail the potential of the human heart filled with hate. Capturing the brutal civil war between the violent and repressive government and right-wing groups, against the socialist Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN). Concentrating on events in EL Salvador between 1980 -1981, and it brings the reality of the first two years of the twelve-year Salvadoran Civil War into sharp focus. The realism of the film comes from the real life experiences of Richard Boyle, played by James Woods, a writer and freelance journalist, who was in El Salvador and witnessing the terror and savagery of the this civil war personally. This civil war was particularly violent with the numbers …show more content…
Although Major Max only appears briefly, he presents a very strong message to his lieutenants regarding the infiltration of communists into the church and that the priests and other subversives must be killed. Major Max talks about uniting groups in a new movement of right wing, anti-communists and there are ARENA flags present in the meeting room; one of the lieutenant’s has the ARENA flag on his arm. Major Max leads and directs the Death Squads, and openly seeks a volunteer to shoot Archbishop Oscar Romero. In a horrific parallel, Major d’Aubuisson founded ARENA, which is a right wing, anti-communist political party which purpose was to strength the militant right in El Salvador. He is known as the leader of the Death Squads and suggests that the Catholic Church has been infiltrated by communists. D’Aubuisson was formally accused, but never found guilty, for orchestrating the execution of Archbishop Oscar …show more content…
The real Archbishop Oscar Romero was executed by a professional hitman on March 24, 1980 and the government was successful in silencing the social justice message he preached, albeit only temporarily. The movie presents a scene where the Archbishop is shot by a man that is taking communion. This portion of the film is not exactly accurate and may have just been altered for cinematic effect or due to the difficulty in finding reliable evidence for this event during the filming in 1986. The truth about this execution is that the shooter was a hired hit-man, who fired the shot from a red four-door Volkswagen and not from within the