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Savages review

Oliver Stone's got his fangs back

Three's a crowd...Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Savages (Credit: Universal)

When he made 1999’s ‘Any Given Sunday’, Oliver Stone promised we’d see a softer side to him. If that reared its head with his last film, the anemic ‘Wall Street’ sequel ‘Money Never Sleeps’, the first minutes of his drugs drama ‘Savages’ suggest a reversal. Cut to a torture scene that wouldn’t look out of place in ‘Hostel’, a chainsaw rings out – a reminder of the most infamous scene in 1983’s Stone-scripted ‘Scarface’ and a warning that this old dog still has fangs.

In truth, ‘Savages’ blends its bloodshed with Stone’s new-found heart. Set in California, it’s narrated by Blake Lively’s O – short for Ophelia – a likeable blonde who lives the high life, quite literally, with two weed growers. A former US soldier, Chon (Taylor Kitsch) is the beefed-up brawn of the operation, which began after he smuggled some highly potent seeds back from Afghanistan. His best friend Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is the more spiritual, even feeding some of their ill-gotten gains back into foundations in Asia and Africa.

While O flits between the two in a harmonious ménage à trois, trouble only starts when a bloodthirsty Mexican cartel (they of the opening scene) decide they want to do business with Ben and Chon on account of their high-quality product. Unwilling to join forces, and realising these dudes from South of the Border are not to be crossed (“savages don’t make deals,” says Chon), the trio plan to hot-foot it to Indonesia. But before they can, O is unceremoniosuly kidnapped by the Mexicans.

So begins an intriguing game of cat-and-mouse, as Ben and Chon set out to rescue the love of their lives. While the plot and pacing are enough to keep thrill-seekers happy, those wanting to scratch the surface will find a script laced with moral dilemmas, particularly for the peace-loving Ben, who is forced to embrace a violent life he’s always avoided. Far removed from the ugly excess of ‘Scarface’, ‘Savages’ is a smartly calibrated border drama that reflects both differences and similarities between the US and Mexico.

If most Hollywood movies tend to paint Mexican drug dealers as overweight, cigar-chewing middle-aged men, ‘Savages’ tries something different. The head of the cartel is Elena (Salma Hayek), a mother who ‘inherited’ the business from her murdered husband and is desperately clinging on to her fractious relationship with her teenage daughter. A ruthless Hayek is the film’s stand-out performer, narrowly besting Benicio Del Toro, as her Neanderthal-like henchman Lado, and John Travolta as a corrupt DEA agent. 

Kitsch, Lively and Taylor-Johnson (better here than in ‘Anna Karenina’) are also convincing, aided by a script chock with sharp-tongued lines (“She’s losing money like a BP oil spill”). Pity, then, it rather comes off the rails in the final reel, with a faltering two-part ending. Not as bleak as either ‘Scarface’ or Stone’s 1997 film ‘U-Turn’, ‘Savages’ never quite lives up to its title. But then for a man who said he was going soft, it’s still a violent and visceral ride. 

Rating: 3/5