SAVIOR
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Lions Gate Films/ Initial Entertainment Group Director: Predrag Antonijevic Writer: Robert Orr Cast: Dennis Quaid, Nastassja Kinski, Stellan Skarsgard, Natasa Ninkovic, Sergei Trifunovic, Nebojsa Glogovac, Vesna Trivalic, Jean-Marc Barr
"Savior" is a small-scale "Saving Private Ryan." While "Ryan"'s plot is propelled by an attempt of American soldiers physically to save a GI from possible death in a global war, "Savior"'s is nudged ahead by its emphasis on saving one soldier's soul. Filmed in the remote, exotic town of Budva, Montenegro, "Savior" explores aspects of the Bosnian War which began in earnest in 1992, a complex operation that pitted three rival groups against one another. In Predrag "Gaga" Antonijevic's film, Serbs are at first portrayed as the bad guys, inflicting brutal, unecessary cruelty on their enemies, but in the interest of balance, the Croats are shown inflicting similar malignity against Serbs and Muslims. The one group that appear to be victims throughout are the Muslims, but at least one of their ethnic group are portrayed as responsible for a senseless bombing against innocent people patronizing a Paris cafe. The film is an outspoken antiwar document, more dramatized than the much honoed "Welcome to Sarajevo" and more unadorned in form.
Based on a script by Robert Orr, "Savior" utilizes primarily the English language, using subtitles for limited moments that Serb is spoken. It opens in Paris as a member of an American mission, Joshua Rose (Dennis Quaid), is enjoying a happy moment with his beautiful wife Maria (Nastassja Kinski) and their small son, whom he has promised to take to the movies. Interrupted by a uniformed American officer, he exits the cafe just as a terrorist bomb goes off, killing his family and all other patrons of the cafe. Intent on immediate vengeance, he walks angrily across the street to the local mosque and mows down a group of probably innocent Muslims who are praying there. Together with his best friend Peter (Stellan Skarsgard), he flees to Bosnia where he changes his name to Guy, joins the foreign legion, and heads off to fight a modern battle of Jericho.
Director Antonijevic occupies the rest of the movie with events leading to Joshua Rose's redemption from the horrible crime he perpetrated in Paris, though at first we wonder whether he is in fact becoming more hardened to the world, more inured to violence. At one point he even shoots a kid almost point blank through telescopic sights, but as Gaga Antonijevic soon points out, you can't trust even the most innocent youngsters any more than Americans could have trusted the women and children in Vietnam who appeared to be friends. The war, pitting the three groups against one another, appears so brutal that few prisoners are taken and civilians are treated with the same derision as are armed fighting men.
"Savior" is Dennis Quaid's movie. Nastassja Kinski gets second billing strictly for her name, in line with an objectionable habit of studios to prioritize casts more by audience recognition than by actual input into their pictures. About all that Kinski, as Joshua's wife Maria, gets to say, is "You promised to take him to the movies today!" when her husband must abandon his commitment, and Stellan Skarsgard, fast becoming a household name among moviegoers, is billed third and yet gets little exposure this time around.
The principal segment of "Savior" revolves around Joshua's relationship with Vera (Natasa Ninkovic), a Serbian woman who has become pregnant while in an enemy camp. She is now looked upon as a whore by her father and at first refuses to speak to Joshua (who saved her life when a Serb proceeded to beat and kick her) and declines as well to take care of her newly-born infant, the product of apparent rape. When the little girl is orphaned and Joshua determines to care for her, he is redeemed.
Antonijevic's portrayals of violence on both sides is wrenching, the sort of depiction that would strengthen American resolve to support NATO strikes anywhere in the world in which "ethnic cleansing" programs are being carried out. In one scene an old Muslim lady, babbling incoherently as the sole survivor of a Serbian raid on her household, is ruthlessly stabbed to death by a Serbian soldier who exclaims, "Let the Muslim bitch bleed to death." As though these brutalities are not sufficient in themselves to evoke our sense of horror, director Antonijevic pumps up the music unnecessarily to manipulate audience emotions further.
Perhaps the principal reason to see "Savior" is to savor Dennis Quaid's performance as a man who has given himself over to thoughtless revenge, a hardened individual who both saves a helpless infant and who is himself redeemed by the little girl. Should we cheer his character's re-conversion to humanity? Perhaps. But what about the need to inflict justice on a man who has mercilessly murdered a group of blameless Muslims in a Paris mosque?
Rated R. Running Time: 103 minutes.(C) 1998 Harvey Karten
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