Certificate: 15
Running Time: 131 mins
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Benicio Del Toro, John Travolta, Salma Hayek, Demian Bichir
Plot: Ben
(Johnson), Chon (Kitsch) and O (Lively) all live free and easy thanks to a
thriving cannabis business. After reaping the benefits of fruitful dealings
they finally decide to head off to a foreign country to live life off the grid.
However, a drug lord named Elena (Hayek) thinks it’s better to keep Ben and
John around town and use their expertise and networks and holds O hostage to
make sure they keep their feet firmly planted in California. It’s now up to Ben
and John to do everything in their power to get O back and settle the score
with the ruthless drug baroness.
At one point in Savages a character discusses the
subject of motivation; he claims, “Like with everybody - there’s an incentive.”
Incentive is a word that best describes Oliver Stone’s directing career thus
far, as nearly all of his films offer a particular point of view or revolve
around a chosen agenda. Stone is always imploring the audiences to think about
matters he views as important and Savages
is no different. This time around the controversial filmmaker focuses on the
highs (no pun intended) and lows of the cannabis trade.
There have been a plentiful -
some may argue a superfluous – amount of films about drug trafficking in recent
years. Furthermore, with television continually chronicling the issue (though
few can complain about the standard of something like The Wire or Breaking Bad)
what more is there to say about it in popular entertainment? Stone financed
this film with the intention of providing more feedback and opinion on the
already vast subject. The director has been an advocate of the drug for decades
and his particular spin on weed does not always do him favours. Whilst he sets
up a story around a ménage-a-trois of drug-users and purports this image as a
divine existence, the dangers that those three face does obscure Stone’s vision
of pot-puffing your way to paradise.
By the end of the film the morals
and messages have be distorted in such a way you almost wonder if Stone’s
inability to stay focused is a result of some ill-effects from years of
drug-taking. Tackling the feeling of realism has never been one of Stone’s best
assets. Even when he attempts to match the sensation of being high with the
aesthetic of the film (perhaps more astutely practiced in Tony Scott’s Domino or Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream) he seems incapable
of capturing a fitting tone. That has been the issue with many of Stone’s films
– the overly-kinetic and jarring editing/shooting technique – but thankfully Savages’ erratic style is less severe.
At the points where Stone eases back on flair it really becomes an interesting-looking
film.
Cinematographer Daniel Mindel
(who incidentally was director of photography on Domino) does provide some quite stunning shots. The visceral
atmosphere of Savages is not only
aided by Mindel’s work but also by the thunderous sound mixing. Every gunshot
and each entry wound are virtually felt due to the amped up volume. The
violence is shocking by its own merit (how it got a 15 certificate is a huge
wonder) but with a roaring sound design and frightfully realistic make-up and
special effects, it almost seems like a snuff movie.
In technical terms, the film is
rather impressive. It is because of some laughable dialogue (“wargasm”) and
banal character development that deems the film mediocre. One cannot blame the
cast for the problems (though Blake Lively always comes across as a bland
actor) as it’s the three-tier writing crew that deter any proper character growth.
Usually in films the appearance of Benicio Del Toro and occasionally John
Travolta would be enough to grab your attention. For Savages both actors are portraying incredibly dull and lifeless
characters and their scenes become the most aggravating. Salma Hayek, Aaron
Johnson and Taylor Kitsch make the film worth watching; even with Elena, Ben
and Chon having few interesting characteristics, the actors are talented enough
to make you forget that.
There are too many incidences in
the film where you begin to immerse yourself in the story only to have some
tawdry element interrupt it. Stone’s filmography reads like a broken polygraph
– indications of peaks in filmmaking and dips of disasters strewn all over the
place. Savages lies squarely in the
middle; it has more to it than an average popcorn movie (though I found it was
in terms of pretentious film theory, and the first ¾ has a lot to offer in that
respect) but to compete in the box office these days you require a
near-flawless edge which sadly it’s missing.
***
By Piers McCarthy. Also posted on Flickering Myth
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