SAVAGES (2012)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Two marijuana users and business partners, battle-scarred Navy Seal Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and pacifist Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), are harvesting marihuana in Laguna Beach, California and their plants have THC levels that are as high as 33%. They are the best of friends and they share the same woman, O (Blake Lively). The story begins like a "Jules and Jim" variant except that chopped heads and protruding eyeballs are around the corner. Elena (Salma Hayek) is the reluctant Mamasita of the Mexican drug cartel and she wants a piece of the weed pie (frankly, no one else in the world has THC levels that are so damn high). When video is sent of a massacre that would be at home in Peckinpah country, the boys get nervous and are unwilling to cooperate with this criminal syndicate. But then the eternally stoned O is kidnapped and things get hairy when a conniving DEA agent (John Travolta), a terrifying and slimy psycho named Lado (Benicio Del Toro, in a role reversal from his "Traffic" role) who is itching to kill and rape, and other unpleasant characters enter the picture. And to make everything as topical as possible, there are references to Afghanistan (where Cho got all the weed from), BP oil spill, legalization of marijuana (when in creation will that happen?) and much more.
Everyone in "Savages" becomes a savage and cannot be trusted, including Ben and Chon whom we are supposed to root for, somewhat. The sweet-as-a-headache girl O even becomes tainted. Oliver Stone's point (taken from a script he co-wrote with Shane Salerno and the book's author, Don Winslow) is that our world is so chaotic and lacking in any defining moral shape that greed rules all, and backstabbing (literally and figuratively) is this country's cross to bear. If you are too sensitive, you will be killed. If you can screw the next person, by all means do it but you might end up in a bodybag. Perhaps that is why "Savages" was not exactly a major box-office success - no morality and no one to root for. Exactly.
"Savages" is not exactly different from any numerous films and TV-movies that have covered the war on drugs and cliched Mexican drug lords and cartels and their negotiations of business dealings, etc. The film, though, distinguishes itself from the norm by cranking out one delicious performance after another from a great supporting cast. Salma Hayek sports graceful notes with her love for her daughter and for her growing need to nurture the unfortunately needy O; Benicio Del Toro is the loco villain who thinks nothing of shooting someone in the kneecaps or raping his wife, despite supposedly loving and needing a family (his character could've used more backstory); John Travolta simmers on screen as a crooked DEA agent who tries to work both sides with sincerity, and is losing his wife to cancer; the suave Demian Bichir as the high-ranking member of the cartel; Emile Hirsch as a savvy, alert computer expert; and Sandra Eccheveria as Elena's daughter who wants nothing to do with the family.
Taylor Kitsch defines steely, rough exterior even when having sex with O ("Wargasm," she says) - he looks hardbitten and has the look of early Clint Eastwood. The fault in casting is Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the sweet, environmentally-friendly Ben (who also has sex with O) - his character's shift to violence is hardly credible. A more stirring actor would have been appropriate, maybe even Shia LaBeouf (Did I just say that? Yes, I did). Blake Lively appears more stoned victim throughout the film, like a symbol of love than a full-bodied character.
Still, "Savages" has high energy in spurts, terrific suspense and Oliver Stone keeps up the momentum. There is sex (women wear their bras while being penetrated), drugs, lots of weed smoking, graphic violence and many Tarantinian moments for sure (what happens to one specific character will remind many of the savage violence from "Reservoir Dogs"). Salma Hayek wears the same hairdo as Louise Brooks and, of course, Uma Thurman (from "Pulp Fiction"). Travolta gives a wickedly comical performance that has a subtle nod to his Vincent Vega from "Pulp Fiction." This is Stone having fun with a big-scale crime epic, throwing everything from grainy images to black-and-white back to color, an assortment of canny tunes and some gorgeous desert scenes. The ending has a nice twist that makes sense with all that precedes it (it will not end the way you expect it). And Stone gives his film a mild dose of "Salvadorian" reality crossed with the Tarantino razzle-dazzle (and a nod, I gather, to Brian De Palma as well). "Savages" is odd, a bit heartless and cold at times, but never less than an adrenaline-stoked, feverish rush that only Stone can manage. After feeling a bit mixed about the otherwise solid "W." and the halfway decent "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," it is refreshing to see the man engaged in a little tomfoolery.
