Today’s Prayer Focus

Savages

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for strong brutal and grisly violence, some graphic sexuality, nudity, drug use and language throughout.
Moral Rating: Extremely Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Crime Thriller Drama Adaptation
Length: 2 hr. 10 min.
Year of Release: 2012
USA Release: July 6, 2012 (wide)
DVD: November 13, 2012
Copyright, Universal Picturesclick photos to ENLARGE Copyright, Universal Pictures Copyright, Universal Pictures Copyright, Universal Pictures Copyright, Universal Pictures Copyright, Universal Pictures Copyright, Universal Pictures Copyright, Universal Pictures
Relevant Issues
Copyright, Universal Pictures

FILM VIOLENCE—How does viewing violence in movies affect families? Answer

illegal drug use

marijuana use

In real life, director Oliver Stone uses marijuana regularly and argues for its legalization in the U.S.—seeing only benefits in its legalization.

Sex

lust and fornication

PURITY—Should I save sex for marriage? Answer

What are the consequences of sexual immorality? Answer

Sex, Love and Relationships
Learn how to make your love the best it can be. Christian answers to questions about sex, marriage, sexual addictions, and more. Valuable resources for Christian couples, singles and pastors.
Buddhist

Why I stopped following Buddha and started following Jesus Christ? Answer

Ten Questions I’d Ask If I Could Interview Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) Today

Can mysticism lead to God? Answer

personal story: Jesus Christ 2, Buddha 0

Featuring John TravoltaDennis
Blake LivelyO
Taylor Kitsch … Chon
Salma HayekElena
Emile HirschSpin
Benicio Del ToroLado
Aaron Johnson … Ben
Demián Bichir (Demian Bichir)Alex
See all »
Director Oliver Stone
Producer Ixtlan
Onda Entertainment
See all »
Distributor
Copyrighted, Universal Pictures

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “Three-time Oscar®-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone returns to the screen with the ferocious thriller ‘Savages,’ featuring the all-star ensemble cast of Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, and Emile Hirsch. The film is based on Don Winslow’s best-selling crime novel that was named one of The New York Times’ Top 10 Books of 2010.

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary, run a lucrative, homegrown industry—raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Lively). Life is idyllic in their Southern California town… until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them.

When the merciless head of the BC, Elena (Hayek), and her brutal enforcer, Lado (Del Toro), underestimate the unbreakable bond among these three friends, Ben and Chon—with the reluctant, slippery assistance of a dirty DEA agent (Travolta)—wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel. And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and maneuvers in a high stakes, savage battle of wills.”

“VOTING” FOR BAD MOVIES—Every time you buy a movie ticket or rent a video you are casting a vote telling Hollywood “That’s what I want.” Why does Hollywood continue to promote immoral programming? Are YOU part of the problem? Answer

FILM VIOLENCE—How does viewing violence in movies affect families? Answer

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Movie Critics
“…Oliver Stone’s ferocious tale of a drug war gone wrong is a repellent, ridiculous mess. … Aggressively, defiantly stupid. … The superb craftsmanship and care behind Savages only helps to underscore what an asinine, unconvincing picture this is. …you get the feeling Stone regards the audience as idiots. …”
Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald
“…The disreputable Oliver Stone of old makes a largely welcome reappearance with ‘Savages.’ Pungent, nasty and teeming with colorful crooked types, the writer-director’s most vibrant (and violent) work in some time is a bracingly sordid saga of two young hash growers, the Orange County princess they love and the vicious Mexican cartel they get entangled with; imagine ‘Jules and Jim’ with bombs and beheadings and you’re halfway there. …”
Justin Chang, Variety
“…The story does what such stories do, with sufficient ingenuity to keep you engaged and digressions that make the movie feel bigger than the sum of its events, some of which (be warned) are extremely grisly. It is, at bottom, a fable of business dealings gone wrong. …”
A. O. Scott, The New York Times
“…OLIVER STONE examines the war on drugs in ‘Savages’ and finds it a mostly futile exercise, useful mainly as a source of garish material for wigged-out R-rated movies like this one. … The movie’s sporadic outbursts of violence, kinky interludes, exaggerated star turns, inventive use of music and Stone’s hyper technique give it a surface energy, but you may find yourself, after a time, less and less invested in the barbaric race to the behavioral bottom, played for grisly laughs. …”
Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Daily News
“…Ham-fisted tale of sex, drugs, murder… Subtlety has no place in …this movie. …”
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
“…Stone gets out his chainsaw…”
Peter Howell, Toronto Star
“…Despite his concerted efforts to sabotage it in the last five minutes, ‘Savages’ is Oliver Stone’s strongest work in years —a stylish, violent, hallucinatory thriller with both a mean streak and a devilish sense of humor. It’s not at all for the faint of heart. …Heads get blown apart and eyeballs dangle. …The operating assumption is that blowtorch hyper-realism is the only appropriate approach to this subject. …”
Ty Burr, The Boston Globe

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