Of Stone's two recent films, Salvador is the most remarkable, if only for its drive and sense of attack, its willingness to deal in current politics as directly as it does.

Although it doesn't attain the stature of The Killing Fields, the film is an effective comment on the actions in Central America.

The polemic may seem obvious and at times laboured, but the action sequences are brilliant, and the film does achieve a brutal, often very moving, power.

Most of the dialogue is rancid, often riotously so. Stone tries to knock the earnest, do-gooder halo off the social issue drama by making his lead characters lowlifes.