Savior is not a great movie, but it's certainly not a bad one. It should have been better.
The first act sets up the motivation and event that leads Quaid's to Bosnia as a mercenary for the Serbs. It's hard to put a finger on but there's just something about the flow of this film, how it handles the narrative. It's the feeling that if given the same material a better director could have made it actually click. The beginning especially feels rushed and and not terribly convincing. I think the film should have opened with him already in Bosnia. It would have served multiple purposes. Slowly unraveling the mystery as to why this American with a French name is there in the first place might have worked better . This would free up more run time to properly flesh out a story that already feels rushed. There would be more time to properly cultivate the relationship between Quaid and Vera which is unsatisfactory and doesn't resonate.
The first scenes in Bosnia are incredibly powerful. But they promise much more than the film is able to deliver. There is a scene involving a bus and a river (you'll understand if you watch it) that definitely has the raw material to be powerful, frightening, and emotionally devastating. But it's unfortunately blunted by the fact that I had no real investment in any of these characters. I'd marginally recommend Savior. It's ambitious and there are a few brief glimpses of excellence. But in the end it's a high minded attempt that is mishandled and falls short of its mark, I've noticed a lot of negative "reviews" here that make zero attempt to analyze Savior as A FILM. They criticize the director as if being Serbian automatically disqualifies him as the director of a film that deals with this subject matter. An early scene in a Mosque is slammed as anti Muslim without taking into consideration the context and that the message in the film is revenge and hatred are wrong and that good can overpower the evil inside us.c The notion that Savior is a pro Serbian propaganda piece is laughable. That thought never even crossed my mind until I read some of these reviews. Nobody comes out looking good in Savior, whether they are Serbs, Bosniaks, or Croats. This was a very complicated situation and all parties involved were absurdly violent toward one another.
Review the film and grind your axes elsewhere. If you can't stomach the idea that Muslim Bosniaks also committed terrible crimes during the Bosnian War then you are intellectually bankrupt and in need of a history book.
The first act sets up the motivation and event that leads Quaid's to Bosnia as a mercenary for the Serbs. It's hard to put a finger on but there's just something about the flow of this film, how it handles the narrative. It's the feeling that if given the same material a better director could have made it actually click. The beginning especially feels rushed and and not terribly convincing. I think the film should have opened with him already in Bosnia. It would have served multiple purposes. Slowly unraveling the mystery as to why this American with a French name is there in the first place might have worked better . This would free up more run time to properly flesh out a story that already feels rushed. There would be more time to properly cultivate the relationship between Quaid and Vera which is unsatisfactory and doesn't resonate.
The first scenes in Bosnia are incredibly powerful. But they promise much more than the film is able to deliver. There is a scene involving a bus and a river (you'll understand if you watch it) that definitely has the raw material to be powerful, frightening, and emotionally devastating. But it's unfortunately blunted by the fact that I had no real investment in any of these characters. I'd marginally recommend Savior. It's ambitious and there are a few brief glimpses of excellence. But in the end it's a high minded attempt that is mishandled and falls short of its mark, I've noticed a lot of negative "reviews" here that make zero attempt to analyze Savior as A FILM. They criticize the director as if being Serbian automatically disqualifies him as the director of a film that deals with this subject matter. An early scene in a Mosque is slammed as anti Muslim without taking into consideration the context and that the message in the film is revenge and hatred are wrong and that good can overpower the evil inside us.c The notion that Savior is a pro Serbian propaganda piece is laughable. That thought never even crossed my mind until I read some of these reviews. Nobody comes out looking good in Savior, whether they are Serbs, Bosniaks, or Croats. This was a very complicated situation and all parties involved were absurdly violent toward one another.
Review the film and grind your axes elsewhere. If you can't stomach the idea that Muslim Bosniaks also committed terrible crimes during the Bosnian War then you are intellectually bankrupt and in need of a history book.