Savior

Great movie and easily Dennis Quaid's best work. Very tough to watch at times but in the end extremely rewarding and cathartic.

Its so appreciated that some artists in the world have something to say and do a timely, thoughtful movie to tell the world what they are missing or ignoring. You can either see what they have to say, or see the next assembly line CGI garbage. I suggest that any mature moviegoer give this a look.

There is some unexpected humor, a lot of horror and carnage and heartache, and I do suggest you keep the tissues close by for a some incredibly emotional scenes.

There is not a whole lot of dialogue which is also much appreciated. Most of the time actors are better when they have nothing to say but alot to express. The actors in this movie are all very natural and real. Not the least of which was the baby! One of the best performances by a new born I've ever seen..this child is beautiful.

Thanks to Dennis Quaid who probably made the equivalent of cab fare for this one..you did a great job in an invaluable movie.

1993, Bosnia. Having seen his wife and son murdered by Muslim terrorists, Guy has become bitter and hard and is fighting as a mercenary for the Serbs. When a prisoner exchange sees his partner take a girl he knows and try to kill her and her unborn mixed child, Guy is forced to kill him to protect them. However he then finds himself in a bitter war with a woman and child that no one wants.

I have seen this movie twice now and can find little to dislike about it, but also realise that it is not for a fun evening in with friends. The film is unrelentingly bleak and depressing as it is a look at the bitter and cruel war fought in Bosnia. The subject matter is framed around Guy, as a man who has been turned hard by the horror he has seen and it works well for this reason. We see it through the eyes of a man who has seen it all and has no more hurt left to feel. The film doesn't simply act out atrocities for us to watch but frames them within this story – however we know that nothing is made up or exaggerated in terms of the bigger picture.

The film lacks any sort of traditional American cop-out (it's no spoiler to say that Guys wife and child don't turn out to be alive after all!), only the opening `this is why he's like this' 10 minutes are a little too neat and could have been dispensed with – I didn't need it to explain why he was dead inside, only that he had become it due to war – which was partly true. However this doesn't really take away from the film, only slightly weaken the character.

The cast are pretty good but the film is 99% Quaid's. He gives a great performance which is subtle and very downbeat. His eyes are where most of the acting occurs and he does it very well – his character is very unsympathetic and has only a marginal redemption to look forward to but yet Quaid mixes it very well. Kinski is out of the film before her name has even appeared on screen, while Ninkovic does a good job, again despite a unsympathetic character. The rest of the cast are OK but hard to judge as much of the dialogue is in Serbo-Croatian and their performances are hard to judge. Faces such as Skarsgård add interest, but I did wonder why he had bothered for such a short time on screen.

Overall this is not a fun film to rent on Friday night but a bleak anti-war film that will leave you in no doubt that the conflict in Bosnia (and perhaps everywhere else) is of no value when compared to the enormous cost in terms of human life and suffering.

This is one of the - very - few war films that actually show war for what it really is, and what it means for the civilians caught up in it. There are no impressive explosions and visual effects, adrenaline-driven missions or brotherly scenes of camaraderie. This film shows humanity's dark side without flinching. Hard to stomach but highly recommended. 8 stars out of 10.

In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:

imdb.com/list/ls070242495

I was stumped at the video store - had basically narrowed the DVD search down to 2 - Sphere (yeah, I know..) and Savior, this interesting looking title on the bottom shelf.

Thank goodness I chose this one.

What a brilliant, gut-wrenching, agonising movie...

Other comments have said it was a low budget job, but the DVD version I just saw didn't even make you think about the mechanics of the movie - just the characters and events that this film portrayed.

The cinematics - beautiful scenery etc (to show that man really has no sense at all - he can be surrounded by some of the most amazingly beautiful surroundings and still turn the place to hell) and sound (the gunshots / ambient stuff etc were very well done) were all spot on..

For the actual plot, the other comments posted are a lot more lucid than mine, so I won't bother trying to explain the premise of this flick.

I really don't know what else to say - some of the scenes containing brutality were brilliant (in a really horrible way) - none of the usual hollywood (tm) bad guy finally gets it in the end type stuff - cliche - it really just showed how pointless these kinds of conflicts are. cliche

Oh man - this film is going to stick with me for quite some time. And I kind of wish it didn't. I was after a throw away movie (should have rented sphere) and instead got this thing that I just cannot stop thinking about.

Dennis Quaid was amazing in it, and the rest of the cast were excellent, too.

And yes, I cryed like baby Vera..

PS: I actually registered just so I could vote & comment on this movie..

I know that many people consider this movie 'Politically incorrect'. Probably it is in some way. I'm not from the Balkans, but I live very near and I remember very well that war in front of my door and I was against the Serbs. This movie was made by a Serb director and show his point of view. Anyway I think that in this movie you can see what was that war for civilian people, any side they were. I found it a true document about the war, and, in the end, I was not disturbed by the fact that it was a movie from a Serb director. I think that this demonstrates that it's a good movie. After watching this movie, you don't hate the Serbs, the Croatians or the Bosnians, you hate the war for the consequences on civilian people.