Home :: DVD :: Military & War :: Drama  

Action & Combat
Anti-War Films
Civil War
Comedy
Documentary
Drama

International
Vietnam War
War Epics
World War I
World War II
Savior

Savior

List Price: $14.94
Your Price: $11.95
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 9 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: History lesson you need
Review: This is a great movie...not enjoyable, but necessary. The brutality of man is highlighted in this movie. It is hard for us Americans to understand such deep-rooted hatred, although we have had similar events in our past. The scene by the river is shocking and will make you shake your head in disbelief. These people lived it, and perhaps you can gain a better understanding of the Middle East by seeing hatred beyond belief. Some may not like it, some may find "flaws" in the movie technique, some may complain about the script/dialog, but in the end, you will come away not celebrating, but in disbelief at man's brutality. Nothing since the Holocaust can bring this feeling.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Honest and unforgiving.
Review: Few words can describe the impact of Savior, a rather obscure war film from 1998. This is a film soaked in death and sorrow. The story takes place in former Yugoslavia. It's based on a true story. Dennis Quaid loses his wife and son to Muslim terrorist's; the film wastes no time despatching them and thrusting Quaid into a world of hatred. After the murder of his wife and child, Quaid walks into a mosque and quickly does his own despatching.

This is an honest film.

Dennis Quaid's descent from a rather dull family man to ice cold mercenary, fighting alongside Serbian mercenaries and hunting down Muslims, is effective. At one point, Quaid snipers a child looking for his goat. Shocking. But a flashback reveals that his best friend was killed by a child. Something that could be happening in Iraq at this very moment. This is war. A truce is soon declared. Quaid and his violent Serbian comrade, Goran, take custody of a pregnant Serbian woman. Goran knows the woman's family. In a tunnel, he beats her. Her crime: raped by a Muslim. But Quaid has had enough bloodshed. He kills his comrade and finds himself in possession of the woman, named Vera. From there, the story follows Quaid's redemption through the protection of this woman and her child. But the cruel and savage hand of old tribal hatred must pass its judgement one last time. A brutal and heartbreaking judgement. Although filmed on a 10 million dollar budget, director (and political prisoner) Peter Antonijevic establishes a harrowingly realistic tone throughout. Most of the movie was filmed in Serbia proper and Montenegro, showing off the scenic countryside of the Balkan region. Some will say the film is pro-Serbian: we see Arab Mujahedeen fighting for the Muslims; Muslims breaking cease-fires; Muslims using children as weapons, and so on. But all sides have blood on their hands. The film leaves it up to you to decide which side you would take.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Christian schlock
Review: I have rarely seen such garbage. First of all, who wrote the script--if you can call it a script? The succession of painfully bad lines became unbearable to the point I felt embarrassed for Quaid and the rest of the "actors".
I should really stop reviewing here, because it's just not worth it. I can't resist though by pointing to some serious ethical problems in this cliche film with an unmistakably decarbonated Christian slant. My impression was that the message went like this: let's leave criminals to the good mercy of God Almighty who will redeem them. This guy was a child murderer, and, I might add, a war criminal of the first kind. He belongs in a court room in The Hague (why was he still Rambo-ing around?). Instead he is a "savior"? Give me a break. In short, the progression of events in this "movie" was too abrupt, not elaborated and so full of irritating trite. As a previous reviewer said: Failed attempt.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Painful but necessary glimpse of the war in Bosnia
Review: This was one of the most emotionally gripping movies I have ever seen... this was a triumph for actor Dennis Quaid, a departure from his usual roles. Here he is the anti-hero, the guy whose pain and grief we understand but whose journey into darkness we shudder at.
... This is NOT a Serbian propaganda piece, as some have suggested. To the contrary, the first monster we meet in this story (other than Quaid's mercenary) is a Serbian soldier who cuts off a Muslim grandmother's finger to take her ring and talks casually about the Muslim women he has raped in prison camps. But the atrocities are not limited to the Serbs.
We first encounter Quaid's character, Joshua Rose, as a US military officer based in Paris. His wife and young son are killed in a bomb blast at a cafe opposite a US consular building. Rose's rage and vengeance is immediately directed at the nearest mosque, where he goes in and starts shooting Muslim worshipers in the back. Several people [have] called these worshipers "innocent," but that might be a misnomer because at least one of the Muslims drew his own handgun ...
Anyway, Rose is encouraged by his friend (played by Stellan Skarsgaard) to flee arrest. They join the Foreign Legion, take on new identities and fight in wars in various countries. But Rose is just marking time. He wants a war he can believe in. This interlude was meant to show a passage of time and how long Rose has held onto his resentment, but it is too hurried to have that effect.
Rose and his friend end up in the former Yugoslavia, fighting on the side of the Serbs. Rose is trained as a sniper and we see him waiting for targets with relentless patience. Anyone is a target... His new partner is a Serb, hardened by war and without compassion. His partner's brutality toward a young Serbian woman pregnant by a Muslim rapist (like it was her fault!) finally causes Rose to intervene on behalf of someone.
He takes her to her home but her family rejects her and even pursues them both to exact punishment from some twisted sense of honor. From then on it's a desperate flight to get to a UN safe haven. Rose's long dead compassion is aroused for the woman's bastard child, and seeing him care for her baby awakens the mother out of her own numbness.
Like others have said, this does not have a happy ending, but at least offers a glimmer of hope for souls to be redeemed and survivors to have a chance at life.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Awful, Awful, Awful
Review: Awful movie. It's a principal betrayal of basic facts in Bosnian conflict. Failed attempt.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The worst movie I have ever seen
Review: The movie is not worth any commenting at all. It is complete waste of time. Talentless, untrue, biased...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Really bad Movie
Review: I'm sorry to say, but this is probably the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life. It is just not realistic. it's also very pretentious in trying to portrait the real war-criminals as "Saviors." Zero stars...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bad Movie
Review: Just a really bad film. More like a science fiction. Nothing to do with reality.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Dennis Quaid and Natasa Ninkovic (not Nastassja Kinski!) shine in this drama that unfolds during the horrific Bosnian conflict. You need not know a thing about the background of this film to understand the message director Predrag Antonijevic and screenwriter Oliver Stone are trying to convey. War is hell and there are no winners and losers. The victims ultimately are the purely innocent. Be forewarned, this film is intense and uncompromising. Even though Dennis Quaid has that macho action hero thing going for him, don't expect a RAMBO film here. Do yourself a favor and ignore all the spoilers and just buy this film and watch it with somebody near and dear to you.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: True Lie
Review: This is far avay from true story.I was in Bosnia all war and Serbs are the one who killed inocent people and so on...I dont even want to go into details,but if you like fiction and lie this is perfect movie!!!


<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 9 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates