john sayles' " men with guns " is about what happens to a society when brute force and constant threat of violence are the only means of gaining and maintaining power . 
the film takes place in an unnamed central american country , where the men with guns are the rulers . 
most of the country is divided into tiny segments - some are controlled by guerrillas with guns , some are controlled by army soldiers with guns , and all the spaces in-between are controlled by thieves , bandits , and terrorists . 
all people not fitting one of those descriptions are defined only by their powerlessness . 
however , like so many central american countries , this one also features modernity . 
there is an unnamed capital city that bears all the hallmarks of contemporary civilization : skyscrapers , hospitals , televisions , highways , etc . but , it might as well be in another country because those who live in the comforts of the city have either decided to ignore the violence ravaging the rest of the land , or else they are simply ignorant of it . 
the film's main character , dr . fuentes ( federico luppi ) falls into the latter category . 
one of his patients , an army general , describes him as the most educated man he has ever met , and also the most naive . 
fuentes is a true liberal , a caring man who thinks he can cure the ills of his country by fighting bacteria and ignorance among the indigenous indians . 
with government assistance , he has trained a large group of eager young medical students and sent them into the rainforest to cure and educate . 
this program was to be his legacy , and he repeats over and over that it was a good idea . 
however , when he ventures into that same rainforest to visit his prot ? g ? s , he finds that things have not turned out as he has envisioned . 
as he travels deeper into the forest , going from village to village , the story is always the same : the doctors were all killed by either the guerrillas or the army soldiers , usually for helping the other . 
when dr . fuentes asks a village woman why the army killed one of the doctors , she replies simply , " because they had guns , and we didn't . " 
rational science and all its attempts to cure have been wiped out by the men with guns , because others' sickness and ignorance helps them maintain power . 
dr . fuentes picks up several companions during his journey , all of whom are characterized by their loss . 
first , there is a young boy named conejo ( dan rivera gonz ? lez ) , who has neither a mother nor a father . 
next , fuentes crosses paths with a thief named domingo ( dami ? n delgado ) , who deserted the army because he was tired of being jeered into committing murderous atrocities . 
through his ordeal in the army , domingo has lost most of his self-respect , and defines himself only by his pistol . 
along the way , the group also picks up padre portillo ( dami ? n alc ? zar ) , a priest who has lost his faith . 
as domingo is running from the army , so is portillo - he has been labeled a guerrilla sympathizer , and ran away from the village in which he was preaching . 
last , the group takes on a mute girl named graciela ( tania cruz ) , who hasn't spoken since she was raped two years earlier , her innocence and even her will to live forcefully taken from her . 
sayles two major strengths as a director - characters and setting - are abundantly evident in " men with guns . " 
 ( like many of his films , sayles might have tightened this one somewhat in the editing room , but a longer-than-necessary running time is a sin almost always committed when the director is also the editor . ) 
he creates fascinating , complex characters , especially dr . fuentes and domingo . 
their uneasy relationship is also somewhat humorous in context of the film's overarching theme of violence as power - domingo's attempts to control fuentes with his revolver are constantly undermined by fuentes' belief that the revolver is unloaded ( at first it is , but later is isn't ) . 
the setting is also as thick with detail as the rainforest itself . 
sayles knows how to bring a location to life , whether it be an early twentieth-century coal mining town in " matewan " ( 1987 ) or a contemporary texas/mexico bordertown in " lone star " ( 1996 ) . 
sayles is not a particularly inventive director - he likes to let his actors do most of the work - but he and cinematographer slavomir idziak ( " gattaca " ) successfully evoke both the beauty and the danger of the central american terrain . 
sayles also maintains a strong sense of authenticity by filming everything on location in mexico , using all latin american actors , and having all the dialogue spoken in either spanish or native indian dialects . 
the one exception is a couple of bumbling american tourists who work not only as comic relief , but as evidence of just how clueless the united states is about what is going on a few hundred miles south of the texas border . 
it would not be a stretch to say that " men with guns " is a depressing film . 
in fact , the two feelings it evokes most are hopelessness and failure . 
in addition to loss , the main characters are also failures at something , whether that be dr . fuentes failure to change anything through medicine , or padre portillo's inability to stand up and be the martyr he always dreamed of being . 
nevertheless , it is bleak material sayles has chosen , and he deals with it accordingly . 
the last shot of the film does offer a hint of hope , even in a world where , as one character puts it , " nobody refuses the men with guns . "