Savior

1998 "He's fighting a war he doesn't believe in, hoping to find something he does."
7.2| 1h43m| R| en
Details

A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.

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Also starring Pascal Rollin

Reviews

Ehirerapp Waste of time
Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
darbski ****SPOILERS**** Read No Further. If you haven't already seen this production, do so before you read this review - you'll thank yourself later, believe me. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing everyone else was - why didn't Quaid just shoot the s.o.b. before he killed the girl? In my humble, but correct opinion, SHE was the savior in this movie. she was the one who sang the lullaby to her baby before she was so brutally murdered; thereby saving Quaid and the kid. As crappy as it sounds to say, I was really torn up by the who-was-who in this confusing mass of contradictions, until that point. It became very clear, then, that neither side was truly innocent. The next "cleansing" that takes place over there will probably prove that out. It is always very interesting to watch religions at work on each other; so convinced that they are right that they can get away with anything. The settings were truthfully bleak, the 10th century minds were horribly real, the ending was not hopeful, except, just possibly the kid's....and Quaid's. Mr. Quaid's acting was very good, but I have a problem with his continual frown. See, when you've done so much killing, it becomes routine, long after the anger has left -- I believe. Kinsky's part was too small, and I bought the movie from Amazon... Just to remind myself that people are sometimes very courageous, indeed. This is a strong 10.
doug_park2001 "Disturbing" and "gut-wrenching" are frequent adjectives used to describe SAVIOR. I agree without hesitation, but it's important to remember that, particularly in its conclusion, SAVIOR is also both heart-warming and gratifying. I have seen very few films that juxtapose these various qualities so well.This is one of Quaid's finest performances as Joshua "Guy" Rose, a former U.S. Army officer who joins the Bosnian Serb Army for the simple reason that they are fighting against Moslems, a religion that, for reasons the film reveals, he's come to hate. He soon finds himself the unwitting "savior" of Vera, a Serbian woman played with utter conviction by Natasa Ninkovic, and her child conceived through rape by former Bosnian captors. The symbolism of the half-Serb, half-Bosnian child shines through very well. Settings are also worthy of note: The Bosnian sequences were filmed right next door in Montenegro, and the whole sense-of-place adds as much immediate realism to this film as the superb acting.There are some rather heated debates on IMDb's Discussion Board regarding what SAVIOR supposedly says about the war in Bosnia and how it portrays Serbs, Croats, and Moslems. Obviously, way too much has been read into the fact that the director is Serbian-born. Certain events and portrayals will inevitably upset citizens of the former Yugoslav republics who were victimized during the wars in the 1990s. However, the basic focus of this film is as nonpartisan as it can possibly be. If anything, SAVIOR overdoes the point that Bosnian Serbs, Croats, and Moslems all committed acts of both horrific cruelty and extreme compassion. In the words of one character, "I am Croat, my wife, Serb. Before the war, no difference. Now, stupid!"
plainmnms2005 There is no quality in his character allows me to accept Dennis Quaid's shooting spree at a mosque. Then, when his colleague justifiably kills one of the wounded Muslims who was going to kill Quaid, I am baffled as to why he should then choose to run away with Quaid in tow and become a true criminal like Quaid, even going so far as to join the French Foreign Legion with him. It's an absurd beginning. Another example of awful logic is after the young woman has her baby, it gets cleaned up, and she and Quaid are on the lam together, the baby cries incessantly because it's hungry. Instead of encouraging the mother to breast-feed her infant, Quaid goes to outrageous lengths to feed it milk, even fashioning a nipple out of a condom when he can't find the nipple (bad dialog moment: "Where's the goddamn nipple!?"). Things truly become absurd when, on discovering the milk is almost gone, he shouts at the mother (who had been drinking the milk) "Have you been drinking the milk!?" Then, he chases down a goat in a nearby field and tries in vain to milk it. Maybe it was meant as comic relief in an otherwise gruesome movie. In any event, I forced myself to watch the entire movie because I wanted to see how truly bad it could become, which, by the end, was quite awful.
bradr69-1 I've watched this film several times, the first time being in the late 90's, and then again just recently. It's truly an outstanding film that depicts the horrors faced by civilians in all wars, and how conflict and human suffering brings out both the best and worst in us.My wife is a Croatian citizen, and her family fled the country in the early 90's when the region first began to break apart, just hours away from being swept up into the war themselves. She was a teenager at the time, and she once told me that no one believed that the war would actually escalate so far, until before they realized it, a battle was being fought in the neighboring town a few miles away. Her parents made a wise decision to drop everything, grab the kids, and head for the border... Someone told them that just hours after they left, the roads out were blocked, and men were being conscripted into the army to fight. Fight for what? Her mother is a catholic Croatian and her father is an orthodox Serbian. Now all of a sudden, they are supposed to be enemies? A tale played out over and over in human history, yet we still have not learned our lesson.I also had the chance to visit the region, specifically Croatia, in 1999. Most of the parts that I visited were still in shambles, with almost every structure in ruins. Go outside and take a good look at the neighborhood that you live in. Now imagine 99% of the homes either completely leveled, or so damaged that they are uninhabitable. Anyone who thinks that war is glamorous, like Hollywood almost always portrays it, should visit a war torn country sometime. WHAT A WASTE!!! That's the Croatia that I saw in the 90's.Last month, I went back for my second visit, 7 years later. Wow, what a difference. The people of Croatia, along with the United Nations, have been busy rebuilding. Croatia is truly a beautiful country. The coast is extremely beautiful, and the National parks Plitvitce and Krka are beyond words. I see hope returning to the area....