Salvador was directed in 1986 by Oliver Stone. Although it always features in his filmography as Stone’s first film as a director, it was actually his third or even fourth. For some reason his early triumphs are not referred to by critics earnestly intent on evaluating the great man’s work. Okay I’m being a bit facetious. The truth is, the worth of Stone’s other films apart, Salvador is a really great film. I first saw it at the Film Market at the Cannes Film Festival. It was the film’s first international screening and there were two other people in the audience. This was of course before the success of Platoon, also made by the Stone/John Daly/Derek Gibson team. For my money, Platoon is complete rubbish; a nasty bit of propaganda which suggests that if the poor, poor American GIs had only had better officers they would have won the Vietnam War. By Salvador however I was blown away. I was so impressed by and involved in the film that I couldn’t remember where i was. So strong was the