thmurphy-37414 Innocent Voices is a good movie. I wouldn't say very good, only because I wasn't that intrigued with what was going on. Don't let that take away from the movie at all, it does a very excellent job opening the world up to the civil war that went on. Now to talk about the movie. I previously saw this movie while on a service trip in Costa Rica, and wasn't sure of it until the first few minutes of the film while watching it the second time. The civil war that was going on in El Salvador was very harsh on the people living there, but I don't need to tell you all about it, just watch the film. Chava, the main character, is a little boy that tells his story of the war. As the movie starts off, you begin to realize there is no father figure around, and the dad is off fighting the war on the "rebels" side. Eventually each day at school, a classmate is taken from the class, as they turn twelve, and is forced to join the army of El Salvador. While to keep from only showing violence and death, the story is told through happiness and hope. As well with moments filled with joy. Chava runs around with his friends and eventually finds his first love. Eventually the war gets so bad, his family has to leave, but I won't get too in depth about all the violence. Another great influence on Chava and the civilian population is the Church and the Priest. He has many powerful moments that express his feelings, and everyone else's in a very peaceful way. This was very unlike an American ending, as I wouldn't expect it to be anything else. As it's somewhat of a documentary, yet told though a child's point of view. I would recommend it.

logatherum I liked this film, however it was not one of my favorites so far out of all the films we have watched. I noticed that there were no sex scenes, in contrast to the other foreign films, which had a lot. It did have a lot of violence, similarly to the others. There was a slight difference between the type of violence in this film than the others, and that was that the characters were not fighting the violence, they were trying to get away from it. This is partly because they were innocent people in a war, not angry people in gangs. This also goes to show why the movie was called "Innocent Voices", because not only were they innocent families, but also children bring a sense of innocence as well. My favorite character was Chava's girlfriend because she seemed to make him so happy, and of course, she was really cute. Although the movie was very heavyhearted, she brought some lightheartedness to the feel of it, since we did not really experience her struggles, so we only really saw her when she was happy and being sweet to Chava. I was surprised when the children's school was stopped so that the kids could be recruited. I did not realize how many child soldiers are forced into war, which makes me feel so ignorant! I was also surprised that none of Chava's family were killed during one of the many attacks, since in the other films, one of the main characters often dies.

p-vent87 I have to say, this movie along with Romero [1989] are guerrilla supporting films, always making the Salvadoran Army look bad and imposing the atrocities of the guerrilla on the Army's side... truly ridiculous! I'm from El Salvador and I know how things happened, the Army didn't take young boys forcing them to fight or kidnapping women, THAT NEVER HAPPENED! It was the guerrillas that took young children forcing them to fight, this is a good example:http://tinyurl.com/3386coeAll of these movies based on the war in El Salvador are truly infuriating, they make the Guerrillas look like the heroes when in fact they were the animals behind the killings, kidnappings of rich people and poor people alike and the whole reason the war broke out! This movie along with Romero are pure and utter failure.Other than the leftist propaganda the story is more or less interesting, but still quite bland as it revolves around a kid and his idiotic favoritism of the guerrillas. Overall, the movie is a terrible and inaccurate depiction of the war in El Salvador.

annahauser2000 Stunning film about the Salvadoran Civil War, told through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy, who, once he hits twelve, will be rounded up with other children and forced into military service, fighting for the US supported government. As shocking as the reality of the subject matter is, the film plays out peppered with good humor as we watch this mischievous little boy and his similarly mischievous friends carry on being children in spite of the horrors unfolding around them. Watching and laughing at these charming children brings a weight of sadness as we know they will soon have to grow up or die.Because the impoverished locals didn't stand a chance against the U.S. funded military machine of El Salvador, they had to resort to guerrilla warfare, which in turn prompted the creation of US sponsored death squads whose role was to spread terror amongst the locals. They did this by killing over 75,000 innocent people.