With the addition of Savages to
Oliver Stone’s catalogue, the synonymy of the term “auteur” in
relation to the director remains but a palimpsest on a career which
perhaps never convincingly merited the status. Without digressing,
let me just say the man has dropped some serious eggs in his career,
but perhaps the laudatory feeling surrounding his name stems more
from his carte blanche wielding, maverick character than the actual
quality of his output. Sure, his style is of the uncompromising
nature that has made for inspired work like JFK - but let us
not forget can also result in tumefied failures like Alexander.
His latest film, most similar to his ’97 turkey U Turn,
simulates the usual territory of the ins and outs of the drug world.
It pins the good guys, Ben and Chon, who make the best stuff out
there and are really cool and smart and handsome against the bad guys
(a Mexican drug cartel) who are really mean and ugly and won’t take
no for an answer. But where U Turn was gritty and at
times unrelentingly nasty (though ultimately bad), Savages is
only ostensibly dark and regardless of Stone’s persuasion, it
maintains the spirit of a Hollywood summer blockbuster tame on both
fronts sexual and violent.
The consequences of Stone’s more meager approach is a bit of a double-edged sword; the film’s lack of genuine grim leaves the audience completely unprovoked but at the same time, Savages succeeds more in thin mindless entertainment than Stone usually does in macabre provocation. The story, though unconvincing, is aided by a straight-forward approach on subject matter that is too often convoluted and ostentatious when portrayed on screen (Traffic, Blow, Requiem for a Dream). Instead we get the cheap thrills of the unpredictable drug cartel mixed with the underdog story of their adversaries, all wrapped up in Stone’s amorphous kitchen sink aesthetic.
The primary figure Stone becomes
reliant upon for said cheap thrills is the unconscionable Mexican mad
man Lado, played by Benicio Del Toro. He kills at will and without
remorse. In a moment surrounding some climactic insanity, Stone
thinks it clever to draw closer to the character while simultaneously
clearing audible room for the chorus of Talking Heads’ “Psycho
Killer.” Thus, Lado’s psychopathy is unexplainable, which is
nothing new at the movies, we’ve been mesmerized by psycho killers
plenty of times, and it would have been fine here had the film been
more balanced on the subject.
Instead, as Lado’s boss (played by
Selma Hayek) matches wits with the moral and bright Ben, Lado matches
aggression and violence with Chon, the muscle of the operation. And
while Chon is of the same vicious mold as Lado, it’s made clear
quite quickly his madness is the result of his PTSD. In other words,
he has inherited madness as a part of being loyal and honorable to
his country. Mix that with the casting of Benicio Del Toro for Lado,
here an ugly overweight slob, as opposed to Taylor Kitsch for the
role of Chon, a white handsome built figure often without shirt.
Though this may only be Stone’s lazy way to distinguish good versus
evil, it’s not hard for the viewer to also infer a touch of the
director’s racism and/or agitprop proclivities, inherent or
otherwise.
Stone’s treatment of women in the
film is suspect as well. There are two primary female roles: the
aforementioned Elena, a powerful drug lord, and O, a sort of muse to
Ben and Chon. While the film passes the Bechdel test, the
correspondence between the two is significantly logistical as Elena
holds O hostage. The only substantial conversation between the two is
during an occasion when Elena has O for dinner. Elena calls into
question O’s relationship with her two men right before digressing
about the emotional loss of the men in her life. The one scene the
audience is treated to some vulnerability in the mighty woman, it
seems to infer Stone doesn’t believe a woman of power isn’t
without their debt to the male species, and more simply, women have a
primary perception of themselves as they fit around men.
The film did however seem to be hitting
on a clever leitmotif involving the film’s title. The word
“Savages” ostensibly fits the Mexican outfit and Lado, primarily,
but as it is likewise used by the Mexicans (even Lado himself) as
well as Ben and Chon to describe each other, it suggests Stone’s
title is a transmutable term inviting dissection. Stone could be
hitting on something as broad as cultural differences, which is
interesting, but it seems to be approaching something more precise as
the once ethical Ben expenses of all moral fiber if it means a chance
at getting O back. Unquestionably, the films best moment is when Ben
is pushed to lighting an innocent man on fire to cover his own hide.
Here it appears as if Stone wants the viewer to question who is the
better fit for the titular term: the psycho killer or he who has
fallen from grace. Unfortunately, Stone negates all nobility of the
film’s progression into any sort of thought-provocation when he has
the heroes escaping from the film’s lame duck finale clear of all
conscience and responsibility. The laziness here appears to be
Stone’s modus operandi for the film. He gave us an Elmore
Leonard-esque adventure without the excitement or wile and a drama of
levity and desensitized sex and violence. In short, I have come to
terms with often being suspicious of Stone’s ability, but never has
his ambition been so in question.
