At its core, Salvador is a marriage of two types of films: a character study and a political message film. Stone had read Richard Boyle’s memoir about his time in El Salvador and convinced the notorious journalist to work on the script with him and help make the movie. Unfortunately, this central combination is where the movie struggles. As a political film, it has a skewed focus between the issue at hand and the narrative of Boyle’s life works. Making a movie focused only on the conflict there and the horrifying events around it would possibly have played only tragically, and not been as effective at making its point. The film partly struggles because of the need of the American audience, and Woods himself, to have a character study with an arc. We want redemption, not just for El Salvador itself, but for Boyle. Yet Boyle, in real life, is the same reckless jerk he has always been, even on set while they were filming this movie. Woods and Boyle notoriously clashed, as did Woods and Belushi and Stone. Woods was very aware of what was at stake in their filming, and was concerned for his and the crew’s safety. Boyle wanted, like Stone, as much reality as possible in the production. Yet neither El Salvador nor Mexico were particularly safe places, nor was the bare bones production filled with the kinds of luxuries that Woods was accustomed to. How dangerous was it? Early in shooting the film one of their Military advisors was shot by rebels and left in a public tennis court. So Woods’ concerns were not unfounded, but also fueled by a desire for truth, authenticity, and, reportedly, a LOT of cocaine as the production surged forward.