Savior
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Movie Reviews of Savior
Movie Review: Sobering
Summary: 4 Stars
While it's certainly nothing new for movies to deal with violent cultural and ethnic clashes, "Savior" is still worth seeing because it examines such strife on a more personal level than most. In a radical departure from his norm, Dennis Quaid plays a hardened, morally grey character in a challenging and unsettling film. The movie lets you know right away what you're in for: Quaid's Joshua Rose, an American living in Paris in 1987, loses his family in a bombing by Muslim fundamentalists, and quicky strolls to the nearest Mosque and coolly guns down a bunch of unsuspecting worshippers. This scene raises a difficult question: it's easy to sympathize with Joshua's grief, but is he really any better the people who killed his family? After all, he's just killed unsuspecting civilians himself. The movie's opening sets the stage for an examination of an all-too-common theme of modern conflict: each side uses the atrocities of the other side to justify their own. Unfortunately, the innocent have been fair game in such conflicts for years, a fact this movie vividly brings home. From there, things only get worse as Joshua becomes a mercenary fighting with Serbs and is plunged into the hellish moral vacuum that used to be called Yugoslavia. Anyone who's familiar with this area's history knows that ethnic hatred there runs so deep it makes America's racial problems look like a junior-high shouting match, and the movie depicts the fruits of this hatred with unflinching vividness. Joshua guns down a boy looking for his goat, his comrade Goran cuts off an old woman's finger and steals the ring from it, and the Bosnian Muslim fighters (and their Muhajadeen allies) do plenty of underhanded stuff themselves.
The viewer gets to see firsthand the physical and emotional desolation left by war, where noncombatants have their lives touched whether they want them to be or not.
Eventually Joshua tires of the relentless brutality and decides to take charge of a young Serb woman named Vera and her baby (the product of Vera's rape by a Muslim). The start of the movie sees Joshua transforming from a loving family man to a heartless killer, but as he develops an attachment to Vera and her baby we see his soul steadily coming back by degrees as he tries to recover what he lost years ago.
Along the way there are some more depictions of war-related horror, none more brutal than one late-movie scene that I won't get into the specifics of. Suffice to say, you have to see it for yourself to believe the depths to which people can sink in the name of tribal hatred. The movie does provide some uplift amid all the depression and violence, but much like "Platoon," it will still leave some nagging questions in its wake. Perhaps most disturbing are the implications for our own country. As immigration increases and American society become less uniform and more segmented, are we heading down the same path as Yugoslavia? Let's hope not.
Movie Review: Harsh reality of war and its fuel: HATE!!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a gritty movie, not for the faint of heart. I usually do not find myself praising such violent films. Dennis Quiad stars opposite Nastassja Kinski. A Serbian directed this movie, very well I might add. I'll offer a cursory introduction to the movie less a spoiler... I think it paints a background for the climax without giving away too much. Quiad plays Joshua Rose, an American military man attached to the U.S. embassy in Paris. Anyway, Rose is a busybody, no time for church or family. Suddenly his family his killed in a bombing by fanatical Muslims. Taken aback, Joshua attends the funeral only to leave for the mosque down the street where he executes all the Muslims there including those responsible. It seems to unravel all too quickly. Afterwards, Joshua flees with a friend- going underground... enlisting in the French Foreign Legion for a 5-6 year tour-of-duty. Albeit, he wants a war "where [he] really can hate the enemy." After his tour with the FFL ends- he and his buddy find their way to Serbia, enlisting as mercenaries in the Balkan conflict on the side of the Serbian army. He acts as a sniper in an urban wasteland. Rose remains Stoic, unremorseful, and initially unmoved by the death that surrounds him. However, he starts to see the futility of war when a baby is bombed by helicopter that nearly kills him. Eventually he meets a raped and pregnant Serbian girl after a prisoner exchange. There he undergoes epiphany, and is transformed by her trauma. He senses her dilemma and obligates himself to ensure the safety of her baby. He works to become its savior against all obstacles. This movie is riveting and has a nice soundtrack. What I find particularly interesting is how the nature of the Balkan conflict is presented. Serbians have a human face though thoroughly demonized in the West. Where the media was concerned, Serbia became the bad guys: the Muslims became the victims. However, war crimes committed by all parties are made readily apparent in this film.Movie Review: Fair Portrayal
Summary: 4 Stars
Directed by Peter Antonijevic and starring Dennis Quaid, Kosta Andrejevic and Aleksandra Borodenko, "Savior" is a strong drama portraying some of the events that occured in Bosnia. Dennis Quaid is a Foreign Legion soldier who detests Islam and Muslims. He dons the Serbian Guard uniform in the Bosnian conflict, fighting against the Bosniaks.
Raised in a foreign culture, Guy (Quaid) is taken aback by the cruelty of the locals, either towards other nationalities, or even towards their own. Guy is placed in a situation in which he has to decide between his military training and objectiveness (as far as the side he chose to fight for is concerned) and his own moral objections.
The movie is good in that it shows the viewer all three sides as committing crimes against humanity - not just the Serbs, but also Croats, as well as Bosniaks. This is a refreshing change from many biased, and/or politically correct films on the subject. Truth is that all the sides in the conflict committed atrocities that may baffle the Western mind, but which have been occuring and reocurring in the Balkans for centuries.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a fair portrayal of the conflict in Bosnia(even if it is a fraction of it). The movie sometimes lacks a story and has slow periods loaded with fillers, but if one can get past those, the story itself is very engaging.
Movie Review: Non-biased reality!
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is not for the faint of heart as there are some extremely cruel and gruesome scenes. However, the best thing about this movie is that it portrays all sides equally guilty of ethnic cleansing. The media in general portrays the Serbs as being the only ones guilty of ethnic cleansing in the Balkan War. Having been to Croatia, I saw the aftermath of what Croats did to Serbs, too. This movie shows that all parties, the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian muslims, had an equal hand in the atrocities committed there, and that no one side in particular was the sole perpetrator.The cinematography is great--shows some very beautiful scenes and some great shots.
The music, oddly enough from Macedonia (a former Yugoslav republic that had no part in this war) was fantastic.
The movie won't leave you laughing, that's for sure, but it will leave you with a better sense of the realities behind the Balkan War.
Definitely one to watch.
Movie Review: Sad but true...
Summary: 4 Stars
War in south-eastern europe (Croatia and Bosnia) during the nineties wasn't a confrontation between gentlemen : believe it or not, it has ALWAYS happened like that in these countries. Atrocities toward civilians were made by ALL sides (Croats, Serbs and Muslims). This honest and interesting movie shows that clearly. In spite of that I was already aware of these facts, this fictional story, of an american soldier of fortune, whose family had been previously killed by muslim terrorists and, then fighting alongside the Serbs, had some impact on me. Many scenes were so realistically shot that it was 'painfull' to watch them (especially the last one)... Maybe not the best war movie ever produced but, you shouldn't miss it, just to have an objective opinion about what really occured in former yugoslavia.