John Sayles on Men With Guns

by John Kim

If John Cassavetes is the godfather of modern independent film, then John Sayles is its favored son. With an uncanny ability to give audiences an empathetic look into his characters' lives in such seminal films as The Return of the Seacaucus Seven, Passion Fish, and last year's Lone Star, Sayles has quietly produced, written, and directed the broadest range of characters seen in the landscape of American cinema today.

Appearing at San Jose State University to accept the second annual John Steinbeck Award in February, the New Jersey-based filmmaker talked about his most recent work, the Spanish language film Hombres Armados (titled Men With Guns for the North American marketplace), and his views on the current independent film scene.

Shot on a $2.5 million budget on location in Mexico, Men With Guns follows the journey of one Dr. Fuentes (Federico Luppi) from his lucrative metropolitan practice into the heart of the unnamed country that he comes to realize he has never understood. Recently widowed, Fuentes travels through flatland and jungle in search of former medial students he has trained to work in the rural countryside, only to discover they have been killed, or "disappeared," for the singular "crime" of treating villagers and suspected guerrilla forces.

"It's a story about denial, and the price of it," says Sayles. An established professional who has profited from the current government, Fuentes realizes he has lived in ignorance of his country's true nature. "He discovers that most of his students have been killed by his own government," says Sayles. "So it's a story about knowledge, and whether we accept it. There is a price to be paid for willful ignorance."

As with most Sayles films, Men With Guns does not offer an easy answer to the moral decisions that Fuentes faces during his journey. It is necessary, says Sayles, for the viewer to make up his or her own mind as to the fate of the characters and they country they live in. "I don't want to supply all the answers," says Sayles. "I have almost never started a film where I have all the answers. I think I make films because I want to find out for myself what happens."

The lack of a specific name for the country in which the story takes place is purposeful claims Sayles, who was mindful of inevitable comparisons of the film to episodes of similar government-backed violence in Guatemala and Chiapas, where some of the film was shot. "We wanted to remind people that this is a story that could take place anywhere, in the past or present," says Sayles. Also purposeful was the decision to film the story in Spanish, with subtitles. "We thought of it as a world film, not just an American film," Sayles remarks. "We were going to have four completely different dialects in the film anyway, because we wanted to show how disorienting this world was to Fuentes, so the film was going to have subtitles anywhere it played."

The decision to shoot in Mexico also addressed a desire for authenticity. "We shot on location in Mexico because we didn't want that generic look that you see in most films," says Sayles. "Films set in Mexico look like they've been shot in the Swiss Alps. They have that sort of Baywatch look to them." Though commercially risky, the decision was tempered by the fact that the budget was small enough to make the risk manageable. "We're limiting the upside, so to speak, but at $2.5 million, we're limiting the downside as well."

Despite regularly accepting writing assignments for major studios -- like his uncredited work on Apollo 13 and James Cameron's follow up piece to The Titanic, the science fiction adaptation, Brother Termite -- Sayles continues to have little interest in directing studio vehicles. Although he has written for hire since the late '70s, rarely does he find projects within the studio system with enough pull to interest him for they year that it takes to make the projects. "I write films for the studios that I'm not interested in. I usually tell them, 'You know, I don't even like watching those films, so I'm probably not the guy you want writing them.'"

As far as working as an independent, Sayles understands his desire to retain control limits his budgets, but, despite the occasional budget crunch, he cannot imagine working any other way. "Every day I wish there was more money," says Sayles. "Just to pay people more, or to have an extra day of shooting, or to have more sleep. But I can't make compromises that might allow me to do that. I don't let other people affect my creative choices, regardless of the money involved, and people understand that when they meet with me. It's pretty much take it or leave it. As a result, there may be economic limitations, but never limitations on story or casting. That's something I can live with."

John Kim is an independent filmmaker based in Northern California. He is currently in preproduction on the feature project The Coast.