Exclusive to Kerouac Alley: The Don Gomez film, "The Situation," and other items--
Santa Cruz Sentinel, 19 September 1986
Correspondents recall horrors of El Salvador
By RICK CHATENEVER Sentinel Staff Writer
HIS obituary may have appeared a decade earlier in Time magazine, but gonzoid war correspondent-turned-screenwriter Richard Boyle was looking very much alive Tues-day morning amid the tapes at Video Video on Soquel Avenue.
Next to him, a mustached Don Gomez recalled his own experiences watching wars rage and governments fall around the globe. Like Boyle's premature obituary, TV producer and cameraman Gomez had his own "intimate relationship with a .9 caliber pistol in Argentina." Like Boyle, he also had all sorts of other narrow escapes from Latin American situations that weren't exactly friendly or mindful of First Amendment rights when it comes to dealing with members of the press.
Now, like Boyle, he was thinking that going to Hollywood and making a lot of money might be a nice alternative to dodging too many more bullets. The two men had scheduled the press conference at the Soquel Avenue video shop to promote the release of their new films in video: Boyle's "Salvador" and Gomez' documentary "The Situation," also on the subject of El Salvador.
time frame on-screen. Boyle, whose reputation among war correspondents is legendary. liked Woods' job in the film. "I kind of object to other (film) portrayals of journalists as being squeaky clean," he said. In reality. the business he's in isn't romantic —and it is dangerous. "Every picture you take isn't a winner, every story you file doesn't win a Pulitzer Prize," he said. "It's not easy." Gomez, Boyle's partner from 1982 to '84, has taken numerous prizes with his Central American documentaries. He echoed Boyle's sentiments, but took exception to the most damning aspects of Wood's performance. In at least two instances, he credited Boyle with saving his life, once in a situation with Salvadoran police and another when someone set fire to the house in which they were sleeping.
"If Richard hadn't pulled me out, I'd still be a Frito on the Salvadoran coast," said Gomez.
Their most recent project in El Salvador came to an unanticipated halt under similar circumstances. They had told the Duarte government that they were preparing a new documentary that would present the right wing as the good guys.
They had even prepared a bogus script to show to government of-ficials. But, after the military ad-viser who had been assigned to help them was shot in the head while playing tennis. Boyle said, "I knew the hit was on. It was time to get out of the country, which we did, by the skin of our teeth."
Reportedly "Salvador" has been seen by high-ranking members of the Reagan administration. Word is. "it did not get the White House seal of approval."
But while taking exception to the Reagan foreign-policy version of things, the findings of Boyle and Gomez don't fit conveniently into the most politically correct rhetoric in this country.
"A lot of people up here didn't want us to mention that the
(Salvadoran rebels) were Marxists." said Gomez. "But if they have hammers and sickles all over the place, someone had to have put them up."
Similarly, the members of the Salvadoran army are "just kids. They're not as some people up here would want to present them, evil incarnate. They're just kids who got drafted." said Gomez.
Being a journalist, a good journalist, means seeing both sides. When covering a war, that always entails a trade off, said Boyle.
"When anyone takes you out with them, they want you to show their side. The Salvadoran army would take you out but say, 'if we lose (the battle), we're taking your film.' "
Being a war correspondent "gives you a box seat to history," said Boyle. "You have a 50-yard-line seat to the great events. In what other job can you get to see all these things and be a part of them?"
Canons of reporting are one thing, "but you have to weigh your responsibility as a journalist with your responsibility as a human being," Boyle went on.
Both decried the ongoing situations in both El Salvador and Nicaragua, where U.S. support is the only thing propping up inept fighting forces and death squads against the will of the people, they said. In El Salvador, Bovle said, “the war can never be won militarily. We have probably dropped as much ordinance on that country as we did on Europe during World War 11. There are parts (there) that look like the moon."
In Nicaragua, said Gomez, the U.S. continues to provide military aid in response to “the magic Cubans and Soviet advisers." Magic, they said, because no one on the scene has ever seen them.
In both countries Boyle said, “I think more innocent people will be killed. It’s too bad American taxpayers are paying for it.’" He sees the future as a stalemate, with “more of the same."
Both men see “Salvador” offering a real picture of war, as opposed to the ones presented by such mainstream films as “Rambo” or “Top Gun." A dramatic film, unlike a documentary, can reach millions of
viewers, especially now in video.
'"Rambo’s already been rented out,'* said Gomez, *i think a lot of people are going to take Salvador* home and ponder on it. Maybe some will rub off.'"
In the meantime though, both men are rethinking their careers. Watching fellow correspondents killed in the field has a sobering effect. Both have been wounded in the line of duty — in fact, Boyle spent 1932-84 recovering in Santa Cruz. And. as they hit 40, there’s the realization that "sometimes your luck runs out.”
Boyle says. "I’ve kind of gotten a new hat as a movie man instead of a war correspondent." He was in the Philippines during the fall of Ferdinand Marcos, but wasn’t covering it. He’s got a script in the works
And so does Gomez
"When we were slogging around in El Salvador in a 100-degree heat with a 40-pound pack on my back, Richard said. *I’m getting out of this stuff," Gomez recalled. "I didn’t heed his words then, but, as the ambassador in 'Salvador’ said, ‘I’ve reassessed my position.’”
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Filmmaker faces "The Situation."
Salvador documentary -
veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5888 presents the premiere of “The Situation,” a documentary of everyday life in El SalvadQr by local film maker Don Gomez, at 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday, at 846 Front St. The 10 p.m. showing will will have a reception and buffet. Call 462-6483 for more information.
Santa Cruz Sentinel 14 Nov 1986, Fri • Page 3
.. The Barn, Old San Jose Hwy, Soquel, Santa Cruz, California--
