Review:
Savages is a decent crime
thriller with some good performance and action, but ultimately hindered by an
awful ending and poorly developed characters. The film is about two independent
pot distributors in California, Ben and Chon, and their shared girlfriend O.
Ben is a peace-loving guy, who double-majored in botany and business, while
Chon is an ex-Navy Seal. Their business is running smoothly and successfully
until a Mexican cartel wants to partner with them, looking to expand their
operation north of the border. Ben and Chon refuse, and so the cartel takes O
hostage, setting Ben and Chon on a dangerous course as they try to get her
back. What immediately sticks out about this film is director Oliver Stone’s visual style (it
reminds me a lot of a Tony Scott
film, but is also reminiscent of Stone’s Natural Born Killers, as if
Stone is trying to recapture that films success and present it to a modern
audience). Stone distorts the viewer’s perspective using quick cuts, image
discoloration and black & white, all in an attempt to visually put the
viewer in an anxious and uneasy position (resembling what the characters are
feeling). The style in less capable hands could (and probably would) be
distracting and even annoying, but Stone is skilled enough to employ it to the
benefit of the film’s narrative. The problem, however, is that Stone does not
develop the main characters quite enough, and thus the viewer is not fully
invested and the visual style is not exploiting the viewer to its full effect.
The relationship(s) between O, Chon and Ben is mostly told to the viewer
through O’s narration throughout the film, rather than being shown visually.
Stone does have some character moments between them, but their real bond is not
really apparent from what the viewer sees (though, again, O tells us that they
all love each other). Stone tries to convey this with three sex scenes, but
most of the other scenes between O, Chon and Ben are mostly just exposition
filled to push the story forward. However, without the emotional foundation the
sex scenes are only physical and do not tap into a deeper more character driven
emotional development for the viewer. Stone has a lot of plot to get through,
and the film is just not structured efficiently enough to include satisfying
character development to show in a meaningful way why O is so important to Chon
and Ben, and why Chon and Ben love each other more than anyone else. But, Stone
does present the narrative in an entertaining manner with fun supporting
characters and well-staged action to keep the viewer interested and engaged.
Plus, the story is compelling to a degree. The major flaw, however, with the
film is its ending. SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
– Stone tries to give the audience the best of both worlds – one with real
consequences and one where everyone lives happily ever after (for the most
part). The problem is that by doing this, Stone negates any emotional
investment that the audience might have had in the film (which is already small
to begin with due to the lack of good character development). The consequences
ending is done to give the film a grand action sequence, which the film builds
towards, but then by having it be just an imagined ending followed by sort of a
cop-out ending (in comparison) the viewer feels cheated, and the characters
feel even more hollow as the stakes were never real because there are no
consequences. It makes the whole film sort of pointless. Either ending alone
would have been fine, but by Stone giving both he negates the power of both – END OF SPOILERS. Savages is not a great
crime thriller, but despite its poor ending and underdeveloped characters it
still has enough good stuff (the negotiation scenes for example are the most
interesting, as Stone sort of juxtaposes the seedy dealings of drug deals with
the jargon and tactical strategy of big business) to make it entertaining and
worth renting for genre fans.
Technical,
aesthetic & acting achievements: With each Oliver Stone film, the
promise of a comeback (or return to his previous status as one of Hollywood’s
best directors, as he was in the 1980s and 1990s) is again brought up. And again,
with Savages, the promise is dashed. It seems to come down to Stone’s inability
to give characters enough dramatic weight and the narrative focus – Alexander is un-engaging with
poorly drawn characters, World
Trade Center is rife with clichés and tear-jerking audience exploitation, W. is unpolished and uneven,
and Wall Street: Money Never
Sleeps is again unfocused and dull. Savages is maybe overdone with too many
story elements at the expense of the characters, again leaving the film kind of
un-engaging (especially for those more interested in characters than action and
style) pointing to Stone’s seeming inability to focus his narratives. Adam Peters’s score plays mostly
a background role, emphasizing the narrative beats. The found music soundtrack
stands out more, fitting the tone well. Daniel Mindel’s cinematography
is very good. The film has a very mixed color palate, stylistically trying to
match the scene specific tone in many cases. Mindel does a great job lighting
the atmospheric scenes. Tomas
Voth’s production design also compliments the tone, as his sets along with
Mindel’s photography reinforce the emotional state of the characters and work to
also push the audience into an equally anxious state. While the three leads in
the film are decent (maybe bordering on flat), many of the supporting
performances are very good. Emile
Hirsch and Shea Whigham
are great in small roles. Salma
Hayek does good work portraying the vulnerability and power of the woman at
the top of the cartel. John
Travolta is very slimy and slippery as the DEA agent Dennis just looking to
come out unscathed and ahead if possible. Benicio Del Toro is brilliant as
Lado, a henchman who is looking for a bigger role. He plays Lado as a smart man
who knows his business, but also ventures over the edge into psychopathic
killer territory with sort of a menacing glee. His performance is the best
aspect of the film. Blake Lively
is adequate as O, but she is not emotionally engaging, and seems distant from
what is happening to her (which is maybe because she is playing someone
perpetually stoned?). Taylor
Kitsch (continuing is streak of poor film role choices) is intense and does
convey a deeper side with his eyes, but as stated above Chon is not given a lot
of character moments. He is just stoic for the sake of clichéd lazy stereotyped
characterization. The same can be said of Aaron Johnson. He is decent in
the film, but plays Ben as the weak side of ‘Chon and Ben’, also relying on overused
characterizations.
Summary
& score: Savages can be called an entertaining decent crime
thriller, but also yet another disappointing overall film from Oliver Stone. 6/10
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