Savages

Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Benicio Del Toro, Diego Catano, John Travolta and Salma Hayek.
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 131 mins. Reviewed in Oct 2012

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Rating notes: Strong bloody violence, frequent drug use, sex scenes and coarse language

Well, the film lives up to its title. This is a film which is often savage, sometimes brutish. It is the work of Oliver Stone, attempting to portray the ugliness and inherent violence and greed in the Mexican drug cartels as well as in the American growers and dealers – with the Mexicans moving in on the border states, and with the connivance of some DEA officers.

Stone knows how to make films and has two directing Oscars to demonstrate it (Platoon and Born of the Fourth of July). Come to think of it, this reviewer prefers his Vietnam trilogy and his forays into American presidential politics (and conspiracies) of JFK, Nixon and the two Bush presidents. Savages has a lot in common with his Natural Born Killers (1994) and the picture of violence and the exploitation by the media.

The cast all do their contribution well, interesting to see Salma Hayak as the drug (usually lord because usually a man, but what is the title for a woman) boss. Beniciodel Toro is her enforcer, unscrupulously brutal and double-dealing, a character without a redeeming feature.

But, the focus is on young Americans. While they have their own brutality and see the tactics of the Mexicans as ‘savage’, the screenplay makes the point they too are caught up in this world, a consequence of their choices to grow, sell and deal (and use) and that they do savage things (and they do). But, they are ambiguous central characters. They might be set up as the victims of the brutal cartels, but by the end, despite some regrets, they escape into sunsets, tropical isles and glorification.

Taylor Kitsch is the Afghanistan veteran, short (very short) fuse who is used to violence and deaths. And he has military buddies who come to the party against the Mexicans. Redeeming features? Not particularly. Aaron Johnson, his buddy from school days and wiz at economics and business, has set up the marijuana project (the best in the US, he claims). He devotes some of his profits to charity and developments in Africa. Obviously redeemable – and it is he who is forced to set fire to a cartel officer who has been set-up as scapegoat. Blake Lively is the attractive girl, to both of the men, a ménage a trois. For a lot of the film, which she narrates, she is an abduction victim to pressurize the two men to deal with the cartel. Then there is John Travolta (not looking particularly healthy) as the corrupt Drug Enforcement official.

The presence of Benicio del Toro will remind many audiences that he was in Traffic (and won an Oscar for his performance). Traffic is the more impressive and impactful film on US-Mexican drug issues. Savages is harder to take.