John Sayles throws fans a curve with 'Men With Guns'

Sayles

March 5, 1998
Web posted at: 10:02 p.m. EST (0302 GMT)

From Correspondent Mark Scheerer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Independent filmmaker John Sayles is following up his most successful film, "Lone Star," with a new film that may prove something of a curveball to his fans.

"Men With Guns," much of which is in Spanish with subtitles, follows the journey of a naive doctor who slowly awakens to a war on indigenous people in his Third World country. Sayles says the film is his attack on "willful ignorance."

CNN's Mark Scheerer reports 2 minute, 20 second VXtreme video

"One of the things that inspired me to do this was hearing during the Gulf War (of) a survey taken where something over 60, 65 percent of the people said they didn't want more details about the Gulf War like they had gotten during Vietnam," Sayles said. "They just wanted to know that we were winning."

In the film, Mandy Patinkin and his wife, Kathryn Grody, play a couple of American tourists. Sayles says they are not so much ugly Americans as they are "Teflon tourists."

"They're the kind of people that, when a disaster happens, whether it's a political coup or a tidal wave, say, 'I'm an American citizen' and they think a magic shield is going to protect them," he says.

"Men With Guns"

Making the film, in the strife-torn Mexican state of Chiapas, came with its own share of tension. To pass through army checkpoints more easily, Sayles changed the working title of the film from "Men With Guns" to "Close to Heaven."

He says he made the switch "so everybody wouldn't have to explain at the barricades exactly what men and what guns we were talking about."

Sayles admits that this film likely has less box office potential than "Lone Star." And that requires a different strategy.

"You just don't spend as much money, and then when you release (the film), you start smaller and you try to build word of mouth," he says.

Related sites:

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• The Internet Movie Database (US)
  • Men with Guns (1997/II)
  • Filmography for John Sayles

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