Not
even fifteen minutes into “Savages”—Oliver Stone’s stylish and rough around the
edges new movie—we get gory executions, the glamorous California coastline and
drug fueled orgies. He brings on the extremities and intensities early on and
as the film continues on only amps it further. Not afraid of a little sex and
violence. That sounds like something Stone would do.
Not
the recent Stone (who’s done overly political movies like “W,” “World Trade
Center,” or the boring costume epic “Alexander”).“Savages” feels more in tune
with the Stone who did dark and controversial films like “Platoon,” “Salvador,” “The
Doors” and “Natural Born Killers.” “Savages” is an intelligent, sexy, lurid, hard-boiled crime drama. Stone’s direction is sleek, quick
paced (Stone uses a lot of quick cutting). The screenplay by Shane Salerno,
Stone and Don Winslow (based on his novel) is intricately plotted and full of
typical Stone-esque dialogue that’s both tough and amusing. It has the look and
feel of a crime drama you might see in the eighties or nineties.
The
subject at hand is a drugs, particularly marijuana. The story revolves around
Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson), who grow and sell pot out of
(where else?) California. And according to the movie it’s the best damn pot
around.
At
the beginning Stone touches briefly (perhaps too briefly) on the origin of
their “business.” For them it started on the sunbaked beaches of California;
one day it occurred to them that in order to have the best weed business they
need the best seeds and the best seeds grow in Afghanistan. So, while Chon was
over in Iraq doing a tour of duty he smuggled back a whole bunch.
Chon
is the buff and tatted up aggressive one, who’s willing to beat up or kill
anyone who isn’t paying up (mainly petty users) while Ben is the skinny, long
haired, bearded softy, who partly served in the Peace Corp. It’s a strange
pairing but it’s also the perfect combo: Chon is the tough and mean enforcer
and Ben in the passive sensitive pot head who mostly specializes in the biology
behind the business. Also thrown in the mix is Ophelia or “O” as she’s called
(played by a gentle Blake Lively) who’s sort of a communal girlfriend. They
make it work.
It’s
a fairly cush life (no pun intended) but beneath all of the money, gorgeous
beaches, hot sex and pot smoke lies the seedy and dangerous underworld of drug
trafficking. Specifically the Baja cartel, a vicious cartel that operates out
of Mexico and across the border. They’ve heard about the two and their
successful business enterprise and they want a piece. And they mean serious
business. They make a video, featuring those aforementioned gory executions and
send it to Chon and Ben as an invitation for the two outlets to chat. The first
member we meet is a high up enforcer, Lado (a wonderfully hardened and menacing
Benicio Del Toro) who we see, in a previous scene, kill two rich drug users
that owe money.
Ben
and Chon think they can outsmart the cartel by stalling their answer and trying
to run off to Indonesia but the cartel catches on to them and kidnap O.
Ben
and Chon may have the best blow on the block but they’re still a small
operation. Also, for how smart they may be in growing the cash crop they’re naive
and a little delusional when it comes to the selling. They’re caught up in a
fantasy of paradise and peace. They want to live on the beach in their nice
house, they want to smoke lots of dope and have sex with their hot and generous
girlfriend but when it comes to the cartel, there’s no messing around and in
order to save O they have to get real and box with the big boys. For Chon that
means keeping his cool under pressure and for Ben, bucking up and committing
violent acts.
Meanwhile,
there are more obstacles Ben and Chon have to navigate their way through, such
as Elena (Salma Hayek), the godfather (or should I say: godmother) of the
cartel and Dennis, a crooked DEA agent who works for both Ben and Chon and
Elena--played by a flamboyant John Travolta. Hayek gives a resilient and
confident performance. It’s nice to see a strong female antagonist in this
boy’s club and one that can show up the males. There’s a fantastic scene in
which she tells off Lado and another cartel member after Ben and Chon steal three
million dollars from them. Next to Del Toro she gives the best performance in
the movie.
It
should be said that this movie isn’t for the faint of heart. It can be
excessively violent. Most of the time you don’t know where it comes from, sort
of like in “Drive.” I admit that I cringed at some scenes. Sometimes Stone is subtle about it (he
doesn’t directly show O being kidnapped), other times it’s done in a sort of
comic vein (when Chon impulsively stabs Dennis in the leg) and then it can be
outright blunt and grisly, like in the scene where a cartel member is framed
for being a police informant by Ben and Chon and is gruesomely tortured. It may
be hard to stomach but it gives the picture some unexpected punch and energy.
The
movie does have some flaws, most notably is the narration by O. I didn’t mind
it at the very beginning, when it introduced the characters but it happens all
throughout, to the point of irritation. Also the ending is strange. You don’t
see it coming yes, but I’m not sure if it works. Unfortunately I can’t say much
else about it without spoiling.
But
those issues don’t totally get in the way of my overall like of the film. It’s
high energy and exhilarating to watch and Stone pulls it off with style, wit
and violence.
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