Savior

Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: This is a powerful movie. Showing the emotional wastelands that are caused by a war of the type in Bosnia. Dennis Quaid plays a hardened veteran of the French Foreign Legion with a past that still haunts him. His numb mind moving from conflict to conflict until his best friend is killed and he has nothing left.

But there is still a glimmer of a soft side in him and he saves a woman who has become another emotionally wasted character in this stark movie.

Together they move through Bosnia as the movie shows the stark reality that is war in a homeland. This movie is graphic at times and should not be watched by the meek of heart. It portrays the battle scenes of a war as seen through soldiers, snipers and civilians. It's hard to tell who are the real victims.

This movie is very good and is one of Dennis Quaid's most powerful perfomances. It should not be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Non-biased reality!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A missed opportunity
Review: I guess whenever there's a movie on the war in Bosnia, there will be accusations of propaganda, skewing facts, rewriting history, biases, and so forth. As an aside, I do have to say that Savior comes out on the Serbian side, with Muslims being the definite bad guys here. (If you're looking for a relatively middle of the road view, see No Man's Land.) But that is none of my concern here.

I understand the movie was made on a budget (as seems clear from the director's commentary), but that is no excuse for its many shortcomings.

First, the good stuff.

It looks great. Great location, nice colours, and it sounds good to boot. Good production.

The action/fight scenes are very well done, not overdone in the ever so popular action movie style, but they don't look cheap and cheesy, just natural and realistic. Violence is well measured, purposeful (within the movie and plot) and has realistic results and consequences.

Camera work is good too, the close ups from Quaid's PoV work especially well. It's almost like being there :)

Finally, before I forget, the meat of the plot and Quaid's character are quite good.

But could have been worked better.

The opening scenes (developed as almost a separate sub-movie) introduce us to Quaid's character. Then he's off to Foreign Legion boot camp, and does a couple of missions, which presumably make him a hardened veteran. Really, they're just confusing. Too short to matter and to absorb. Suddenly we're in Bosnia looking through a sniper's scope. Aside from the opening scenes, we're left to assume Quaid's a tortured, restless, numb soul. He must be, because the director says so. Listening to the director's commentary track, you have to laugh out loud at times, because what he's describing and what you're seeing are almost total opposites. And I don't think it's a language barrier.

The director also keeps blaming the 'financiers' for many things. They wanted this, and that, didn't like this, etc, etc. Please...

The dialogue is very stiff, very forced and unnatural. Good thing the kid gets off-screen early; he's your typical Hollywood portrayal of a child, asking all these insightful adult questions, like 'is god in bad people too?' Adults don't fare much better, delivering disjoint, wooden lines every couple of minutes. And what's with those voices? Sure is a lot of grunting going around. Goran is just about the only guy with any soul showing in the movie.

That's my biggest beef here. It's almost painful to sit through the thing sometimes, you just gotta cringe and bear it for a few more minutes.

Which brings me to the last point. I don't see this as a difficult movie, or tough, or rough, or challanging, or any of that. Some reviewer said that the slight glimmer of hope with the baby was the only thing that made it worthwhile. Personally, I thought the movie took the easy way out several times, the major one being the baby plot. Just a little too wishy-washy Hollywoody happy ending style. There are a couple of scenes that will make your average American movie goer wince and oooh, and aww (out of social responsibility mostly), but nothing a seasoned war movie veteran hasn't seen before in more brutal detail.

Really, if the director intended for us to see Quaid's stuggle with himself, his humanity, his search for hope, it should have been more subtle, using plot points like the baby as mere devices, means to an end, not bludgeon viewers over the head to make sure they don't miss the obvious. And the director clearly indicates, time and time again, that this is a character study. Well, if it is, how come there's so little character?

2/5. It's not a bad movie, it just has a few bad points that really spoil a good idea, and a great opportunity for a classic and powerful film.

Rating:
Summary: Very Human, emotional, excellent...
Review: This is an excellent movie. It is very hard to watch at some times, I even covered my eyes at some parts. The whole of the movie is so real and emotional. The acting is perfect and it will stay with you always. The 'Song' that is sung by the Mother will touch you deep and bring you deeper into the characters. I almost turned it off because the actions taking place were so hard to watch. But, if you continue through to the end, you will find a new understanding of another culture and time. One so unlike ours that it is an eye opener to what has really gone on in this world. Dennis Quaid played this character so well that I forgot anything else he had acted in. Please see this movie, just be prepared for where it takes you.

Rating:
Summary: "Savior"/Quaid in a Must See film
Review: I will leave the plot aspects to other reviewers. This is a brutal movie that not only reflects the horrors of the genocidal confilict in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, but is a commentary on war and retribution in general. You've never really seen Dennis Quaid act until this movie, and you will most likely be suprised at his performance. The movie could have ended in a typical Hollywood way, but instead ends beautifully. If you are appalled at some scenes in the movie, you have to press on to the end - you won't regret it. A beautiful, haunting soundtrack blends with the film. If I had my way, I would show this film in the schools to every high school student in America as a lesson in pluralism and acceptance -- this is the logical extension of ethnic hatred.

Rating:
Summary: A deliberate attempt to misrepresent the facts!
Review: It is by now a well-established fact that the war in Bosnia was not a civil war but a genocide. Paradoxically, Peter Antonijevic does not seem to share this view. It is well-known that Serbians started the war in an attempt to annihilate all Muslims and create "Great Serbia"- a state comprising of Serbians only! The director Peter Antonijevic deliberately misrepresents and distorts the facts. For instant, it has been documented that Serbians committed a large majority of the war crimes (including rapes) in Bosnia- check David Rohde for corroboration. Ironically, in this particular case the perpetrator "happens" to be a Muslim. This is an insidious move by the director to blind the viewer with hatred toward all Muslims. As was expected, this movie starts with an atrocious act committed by Muslim fundamentalists ( a very popular term in the Western media). The lead actor seeks to avenge the death of his wife and child and on that account joins the Serbian army, whose primary objective is to kill as many Muslims as possible. Clearly, Antonijevic tries to malign Bosnian Muslims but this is not strange considering the fact that Antonijevic is a Serbian. It is evident that he is subjective and this seriously undermines the overall impression of the movie. Peter Antonijevic appears to be oblivious to the following facts: of the 300.000 victims of the Bosnian war- 85% were Muslims, check David Rohde and others for corroboration. Admittedly, he fails to realize that Serbians were the aggressors whereas Muslims were victims of the gruesome genocide. This is a fact of life. Thus, with this movie, the director reveals that he loathes Muslims. In short, the purpose of this movie is solely to convince its viewers that all Muslims are evil and barbaric. Peter Antonijevic is to my mind a very prejudiced person.

Rating:
Summary: Violence, Revenge, then Redemption
Review: Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia-I think to most Americans it's all a blur. Based on news reports of American's knowledge of geography, most of us couldn't find any of them on a map. Despite all the news reports in recent years, I doubt most Americans could name the capital of Yugoslavia or its current head of state. The movie Savior is based on a true story an American who became a mercenary in the Bosnian conflict, on the side of the Serbs.

Joshua, played by Dennis Quaid, is an American Military Official living in Paris with his wife and infant son. When war breaks out in Bosnia, he informs them that he has to leave to go to Bosnia as an observer. Before he leaves, his wife and son are killed by Moslem terrorists when the café they are sitting in is blown to bits by a bomb. In a state of rage, Joshua runs into the nearest Mosque and pumps several bullets into the back of a man who is kneeling in prayer.

Joshua escapes to join the French Foreign Legion, where he is given a new name. He then joins the Serbian army, circa 1993. As a soldier, he is a perfectly efficient killing machine. He follows orders and kills without emotion. After a truce is declared, a young boy chasing a ball obliviously approaches a demarcation line. Joshua tracks him through the scope of his sniper's rifle. When the boy crosses the line, Joshua coolly executes him. In the next scene, a young, pretty girl crosses the same line, in another spot, where Joshua's buddy is on guard duty. He reacts to the girl like a normal human being. She casually blows him away with a hand grenade.

As a result of the murder of his wife and child, Joshua is dead inside, but he has found a place for himself in the Serbian army, in the war zone in Bosnia.

Unfortunately, up to this point in the movie, my feeling was that this was just another senseless, action/violence thriller, but it was just sufficiently different to keep me going.

Joshua gets assigned to escort duty in a prisoner exchange with Moslems. One of the prisoners he receives is a young, civilian Serbian woman named Vera, played by Nastassjia Kinski. She is pregnant as a result of being raped and is close to giving birth. She appears traumatized. Joshua's job is to drive her back her family in her home village. On the trip to her village, she gives birth almost right away. She is totally indifferent to the baby and does not respond to it or care for it in any way. She is as indifferent as to the baby as Joshua is to killing children. They are both emotional basket cases.

But this is when Joshua starts to change. With a woman and newborn baby in his care, he starts to show sign of humanity. He tries everything he can to try and get Vera to care for the baby. There is a language barrier. She is practically catatonic towards the baby. He continually urges, pleads, annoys and harasses her to get her to care for the baby. Eventually, he starts to make some progress; he gets her to breast feed the baby. On part of the trip, they spend one night in the home of a couple where the husband is a Croat and the wife, a Serb. They give them a bottle and diapers. For a while they travel with a fellow Serbian soldier who is from Vera's village. He hates Moslems and wants to kill the baby, since it is half Moslem, by blood. Joshua executes him. When Joshua and Vera get to her village, she is rejected by her father and told to leave the village because she is pregnant.

There are no good guys in this movie. Atrocities are committed by all sides. The death of Joshua's family by Moslem terrorists and his joining the Serbian nationalist army to act out his desire for revenge is intended to be a personal microcosm about how the historical conflict started and carries on. I'm not going to tell you who lives and who dies.
The movie is worth seeing. Although the movie is about what happens to Joshua, you get some idea of what the conflict has done to the people that live there and what their life is like. By comparison, news reports and CNN seem to exist in the abstract. In the movie you also get an idea of the medieval mentality (revenge killings, the shunning of women who have been raped) in the region. Beware; the killing scenes will make you shudder.

I like the fact that the Serbs are not singled out as the bad guys, anymore than anyone else. The Croats are portrayed badly, but maybe this helps balance out the bad public image of the Serbs to give all parties in the movie the proper balance.

In her role as Vera, Natassja Kinski appears extremely unattractive, as you would expect from a character who has been imprisoned and gang raped. As the movie goes on she starts to appear more attractive. I don't know if it's my imagination or if this was done by design. She is an actress very comfortable in her own skin.

No doubt, redemption and salvation are what the Serbian director wishes for Serbia. However, Joshua's redemption is paltry and inadequate, and as a savior, he is a dismal failure.

Rating:
Summary: A stunning view of the cruelty of war...
Review: This movie tells the story of an American diplomat whose family is murdered by Islamic terrorists, and, after taking revenge on some random Muslims, the ex-diplomat joins the Foreign Legion and decides to fight for what he considers just causes. To this end, Dennis Quaid (the ex-diplomat) ends up fighting for the Serbs in Bosnia and witnesses appalling acts of cruelty on all sides of the conflict. Eventually, Quaid comes into a situation with a young mother and her daughter which leads him towards the ultimate state of redemption and grace.

While many people think this film is about the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, it is my opinion that the film does a better job of detailing the vast horror and genocide which was the Balkans war in the 1990's. Regardless, this movie is highly recommended for its many messages.

Rating:
Summary: I came from a war
Review: Ok, first all these people that are writing comments probably are from Bosnia but lived throughout the war in another country. I am from Prijedor,Bosnia and i know exactly how a war is like because i've seen it and i know how it is. This movie cannot be better it is 110% reality and cannot be better. Maybe there are a few clips they added in but that probably was true also. I do not understand why the creater of the Movie didnt get an Oscar. If you watch this movie and you are from BOSNIA, you will cry and know exactly how it was. The way they killed Muslims was true (hammer on the head...., cut ear out...rape....etc) I just have to say that this movie is the best and cannot be any more better. By this messege i do not attend to hurt anybodys feelings...I am just sharing my opinion to this movie that its very real and no other Bosnian War movie or how you want to call it is better.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best war films ever made!
Review: Savior is the story of an American fighting for the Serbs in the bosnian war who risks everything to save a muslim baby.
This movie is incredibly well written, filmed, and acted, and was shot in the remarkably beautiful country of Montenegro.
Savior had no problem keeping me deeply interested throughout the entire film. I found it to be extremely depressing and disturbing, while hopefull at the same time. One scene in particular had me fighting back tears.
I have seen this movie about five times since I first dicovered it 3 years ago, and I am captivated each time.
I am not easily impressed by modern movies, but this one is a masterpice. You must see this fim!