Review: Savages
Oliver Stone is known as a prolific filmmaker, having made some very popular – and some very controversial – films. His works always seem to have a message. Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July were about war and the toll it takes on the human soul. Wall Street was about corporate greed. JFK, Nixon, and W were political commentaries.
However, Stone does like to take time to switch things up from his usual forte, which is why we also have films like Any Given Sunday, Alexander, and this summer’s Savages.
A visually stylistic tale about two drug dealers going to war against a drug cartel to free the woman they both love hardly seems to fit in the traditional summer blockbuster mold alongside other recent films like The Amazing Spiderman (review here) and Ted (review here). But perhaps that’s why it was released when it was; to offer some dark, gritty counterprogramming in a season largely filled with lighthearted fluff.
And gritty Savages is! The two drug dealers, played believably by Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) and Taylor Kitsch (Battleship), are willing to do whatever it takes to reclaim the third point in their awkwardly consensual love triangle, the beautiful O (Blake Lively, The Town). This is especially true for Kitsch’s character, Chon, a veteran of the Middle East wars who stands in contrast with Johnson’s Ben, who is more of a Buddhist philanthropist.
But Chon is still outdone by the drug cartel’s sadistic enforcer, Lado, a remarkably scary transformation from Benicio Del Toro (Traffic). He instigates a number of brutal, tortuous scenes, coming closer and closer to going rogue throughout the film, and even the cartel’s leader, Elena (an effective Salma Hayek, Frida), can sense that she losing control.
However, Stone does like to take time to switch things up from his usual forte, which is why we also have films like Any Given Sunday, Alexander, and this summer’s Savages.
A visually stylistic tale about two drug dealers going to war against a drug cartel to free the woman they both love hardly seems to fit in the traditional summer blockbuster mold alongside other recent films like The Amazing Spiderman (review here) and Ted (review here). But perhaps that’s why it was released when it was; to offer some dark, gritty counterprogramming in a season largely filled with lighthearted fluff.
And gritty Savages is! The two drug dealers, played believably by Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) and Taylor Kitsch (Battleship), are willing to do whatever it takes to reclaim the third point in their awkwardly consensual love triangle, the beautiful O (Blake Lively, The Town). This is especially true for Kitsch’s character, Chon, a veteran of the Middle East wars who stands in contrast with Johnson’s Ben, who is more of a Buddhist philanthropist.
But Chon is still outdone by the drug cartel’s sadistic enforcer, Lado, a remarkably scary transformation from Benicio Del Toro (Traffic). He instigates a number of brutal, tortuous scenes, coming closer and closer to going rogue throughout the film, and even the cartel’s leader, Elena (an effective Salma Hayek, Frida), can sense that she losing control.
No one in the film has a normal relationship. Ben, Chon, and O have their three-way mess. Elena is reaching out to a daughter who hates her. John Travolta’s slimy, corrupt DEA agent has a dying wife and two daughters, but only seems to care about himself. And Lado doesn’t seem possible of love. Even business relationships can’t be trusted. And all these people are interacting with each other.
Yet as odd as these relationships may be, each character is willing to fight and die for what they love. To them it seems, the imperfection of their relationships seems to fit perfectly in their lives and with who they are.
All that is to say that Stone has constructed some interesting characters and dynamics between them, even if having so much going on can make the film seem rather crowded at times. The plot itself, also, is interesting, although not really anything that particularly stands out from any other film in the movie genre of drug dealing (It’s nothing compared to Scarface, for instance). The action, too, is also comparatively engaging.
The biggest complaint I have in an otherwise decent film is how truly botched the ending was. Clearly a stylistic choice by Stone, what may have been an interesting idea in conception proves to be completely impractical and ineffective in delivery. It just doesn’t work and left most in the theater scratching their heads and looking around for answers.
Overall, Savages is an alright film with some great character dynamcis, but a dissatisfying conclusion.
The Final Word: Wait to rent it.
Yet as odd as these relationships may be, each character is willing to fight and die for what they love. To them it seems, the imperfection of their relationships seems to fit perfectly in their lives and with who they are.
All that is to say that Stone has constructed some interesting characters and dynamics between them, even if having so much going on can make the film seem rather crowded at times. The plot itself, also, is interesting, although not really anything that particularly stands out from any other film in the movie genre of drug dealing (It’s nothing compared to Scarface, for instance). The action, too, is also comparatively engaging.
The biggest complaint I have in an otherwise decent film is how truly botched the ending was. Clearly a stylistic choice by Stone, what may have been an interesting idea in conception proves to be completely impractical and ineffective in delivery. It just doesn’t work and left most in the theater scratching their heads and looking around for answers.
Overall, Savages is an alright film with some great character dynamcis, but a dissatisfying conclusion.
The Final Word: Wait to rent it.
*Props if you caught the Pocahontas reference in the title!
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