Savior (film)
Encyclopedia
Savior is a 1998 war film
starring Dennis Quaid
, Stellan Skarsgård
, Nastassja Kinski
, and Nataša Ninković. It is about an American mercenary
escorting a Serbia
n woman and her newborn child to a United Nations
safe zone during the Bosnian War
and Bosnian Genocide
.
, with Joshua taking the name Guy.
The film moves forward to the civil war in Bosnia
where "Guy" and Peter are now fighting for the Bosnian Serbs, stationed on a bridge separating them and the Bosnian Muslims
in a town. Guy mans a sniper post overlooking the bridge, and witnesses Peter's death when Peter drops his guard at a checkpoint and a young girl throws a grenade at him. Guy in turn shoots a child crossing the bridge.
Guy is then seen searching the Muslim side of the town following a ceasefire along with a Bosnian Serb soldier Goran (Sergej Trifunović
). In one house they find an elderly Muslim woman who is confined to bed and shell-shocked. Guy also finds a dead woman in the same room and a sleeping baby who has been hidden in a wardrobe but does not inform Goran who hacks a finger off the old woman in order to steal her ring.
After they leave the house a helicopter attacks the town. As Goran takes cover Guy stays out in the open and returns to the house, seemingly to find the baby, but finds that both the child and the old lady have been killed by falling rubble. Later, Guy and Goran prepare for a prisoner exchange with the Bosnian Muslim forces. When they arrive at the exchange point one of the young Serbian women prisoners being exchanged, Vera (Nataša Ninković), is visibly pregnant because she was raped by Muslims. Guy and Goran take her in Goran's car and they head towards her village.
In the car Goran is abusive towards Vera for becoming pregnant by a Bosnian Muslim Army soldier even though Guy points out that she was almost certainly raped. Goran eventually stops the car in a tunnel. He throws Vera out of the car and begins to kick her as she lies on the ground. The assault forces Vera into premature labor. As Goran prepares to shoot the soon-to-be-born child, Guy shoots and kills Goran. He then helps deliver her baby. When he shows Vera the child she rejects it and attempts to shoot herself before Guy manages to stop her.
They continue to her village where she is rejected by her family due to the shame felt by her father. They leave the village with Guy, intending to head for a refugee camp where Vera and the baby would be looked after. Vera continues to reject the child and does not communicate with Guy. After being told by Goran's family that Goran's body has been found and that Guy must have killed him, Vera's father and brother head off in pursuit of them. They eventually catch up with them when they stop to get milk for the child. Guy is shot and injured, but Vera places herself between him and her father as he goes to kill him, and her father backs off and allows them to leave.
They briefly return to Vera's village to find it has been attacked , and have to watch from a distance as her family and other villagers are rounded up and led away by Bosnian Muslim fighters. Guy decides to head for the safety of the UN zone in Split
on the Dalmatian Coast. On their way they stop and take refuge with an elderly Croatian man and his Serbian wife. The old man tells Guy "before the war [Serbs and Croats] no difference and now, stupid," pointing to his head to show madness.
After moving on they reach what they think is a relatively safe area. Vera leaves Guy and the child to rest in an abandoned and half-sunk boat on the edge of a lake while she goes to find a bus that will take them to Split. Vera is captured along with other civilians by soldiers of Croatian Defence Council
. The Croat soldiers take their prisoners to the waterfront where Guy is hiding in the boat. One soldier then proceeds to beat several to death with a sledgehammer, including Vera, as they stand in the water. The fighters shoot those that are left as Guy witnesses the slaughter from inside the boat but can do nothing without giving himself and the child away. He smothers the baby in order to keep her quiet as the soldiers prepare to leave. She stops breathing but he manages to successfully resuscitate her.
He eventually makes his way onto a bus that takes them to Split where he leaves Vera's baby in an unattended Red Cross vehicle before walking to a pier, throwing his gun in the water and collapsing on a bench. A woman who was on the bus with him and saw him place the baby in the car approaches him, carrying the girl and offering to help them. When she asks if the baby is his, Guy replies that she is and the woman promises to take them both to hospital. The film ends with the closing credits.
gave the film three and a half stars out of a possible four, stating that "Savior is a brutally honest war film that looks unblinkingly at how hate and prejudice can pose as patriotism."
. Choral arrangements were conducted by Gil Robbins
and featured the choir of Radio Television of Serbia
and the Belgrade Symphony Orchestra. The film featured several traditional regional folk songs, such as Zajdi, zajdi, Uspavanka (sang as a lullaby
), and Rasti, rasti, moj zeleni bore (all used as the theme and in the credits).
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
starring Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
, Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in Angels & Demons, Breaking the Waves, The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,...
, Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films , as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris,...
, and Nataša Ninković. It is about an American mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
escorting a Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n woman and her newborn child to a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
safe zone during the Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
and Bosnian Genocide
Bosnian Genocide
The term Bosnian Genocide refers to either the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995 or the ethnic cleansing campaign that took place throughout areas controlled by the Bosnian Serb Army during the 1992–1995 Bosnian War....
.
Plot
Joshua Rose (Dennis Quaid), a State Department Official on embassy duty in Paris, sees his wife (Nastassja Kinski) and son killed in a bombing by suspected Islamic terrorists. Immediately after the family funeral he storms into a nearby mosque and shoots several worshippers. His friend Peter (Stellan Skarsgård) is forced to shoot one of the survivors outside when the man tries to kill Rose, and in order to avoid arrest they join the French Foreign LegionFrench Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
, with Joshua taking the name Guy.
The film moves forward to the civil war in Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
where "Guy" and Peter are now fighting for the Bosnian Serbs, stationed on a bridge separating them and the Bosnian Muslims
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
in a town. Guy mans a sniper post overlooking the bridge, and witnesses Peter's death when Peter drops his guard at a checkpoint and a young girl throws a grenade at him. Guy in turn shoots a child crossing the bridge.
Guy is then seen searching the Muslim side of the town following a ceasefire along with a Bosnian Serb soldier Goran (Sergej Trifunović
Sergej Trifunovic
Sergej Trifunović is a popular Bosnian Serb movie actor.-Biography:...
). In one house they find an elderly Muslim woman who is confined to bed and shell-shocked. Guy also finds a dead woman in the same room and a sleeping baby who has been hidden in a wardrobe but does not inform Goran who hacks a finger off the old woman in order to steal her ring.
After they leave the house a helicopter attacks the town. As Goran takes cover Guy stays out in the open and returns to the house, seemingly to find the baby, but finds that both the child and the old lady have been killed by falling rubble. Later, Guy and Goran prepare for a prisoner exchange with the Bosnian Muslim forces. When they arrive at the exchange point one of the young Serbian women prisoners being exchanged, Vera (Nataša Ninković), is visibly pregnant because she was raped by Muslims. Guy and Goran take her in Goran's car and they head towards her village.
In the car Goran is abusive towards Vera for becoming pregnant by a Bosnian Muslim Army soldier even though Guy points out that she was almost certainly raped. Goran eventually stops the car in a tunnel. He throws Vera out of the car and begins to kick her as she lies on the ground. The assault forces Vera into premature labor. As Goran prepares to shoot the soon-to-be-born child, Guy shoots and kills Goran. He then helps deliver her baby. When he shows Vera the child she rejects it and attempts to shoot herself before Guy manages to stop her.
They continue to her village where she is rejected by her family due to the shame felt by her father. They leave the village with Guy, intending to head for a refugee camp where Vera and the baby would be looked after. Vera continues to reject the child and does not communicate with Guy. After being told by Goran's family that Goran's body has been found and that Guy must have killed him, Vera's father and brother head off in pursuit of them. They eventually catch up with them when they stop to get milk for the child. Guy is shot and injured, but Vera places herself between him and her father as he goes to kill him, and her father backs off and allows them to leave.
They briefly return to Vera's village to find it has been attacked , and have to watch from a distance as her family and other villagers are rounded up and led away by Bosnian Muslim fighters. Guy decides to head for the safety of the UN zone in Split
Split (city)
Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
on the Dalmatian Coast. On their way they stop and take refuge with an elderly Croatian man and his Serbian wife. The old man tells Guy "before the war [Serbs and Croats] no difference and now, stupid," pointing to his head to show madness.
After moving on they reach what they think is a relatively safe area. Vera leaves Guy and the child to rest in an abandoned and half-sunk boat on the edge of a lake while she goes to find a bus that will take them to Split. Vera is captured along with other civilians by soldiers of Croatian Defence Council
Croatian Defence Council
The Croatian Defence Council was a military formation of the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during the Bosnian War.-History:...
. The Croat soldiers take their prisoners to the waterfront where Guy is hiding in the boat. One soldier then proceeds to beat several to death with a sledgehammer, including Vera, as they stand in the water. The fighters shoot those that are left as Guy witnesses the slaughter from inside the boat but can do nothing without giving himself and the child away. He smothers the baby in order to keep her quiet as the soldiers prepare to leave. She stops breathing but he manages to successfully resuscitate her.
He eventually makes his way onto a bus that takes them to Split where he leaves Vera's baby in an unattended Red Cross vehicle before walking to a pier, throwing his gun in the water and collapsing on a bench. A woman who was on the bus with him and saw him place the baby in the car approaches him, carrying the girl and offering to help them. When she asks if the baby is his, Guy replies that she is and the woman promises to take them both to hospital. The film ends with the closing credits.
Cast
- Dennis QuaidDennis QuaidDennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
as Joshua Rose / Guy - Nataša Ninković as Vera
- Stellan SkarsgårdStellan SkarsgårdStellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in Angels & Demons, Breaking the Waves, The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,...
as Peter Dominic - Nastassja KinskiNastassja KinskiNastassja Kinski is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films , as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris,...
as Maria Rose - Sergej TrifunovićSergej TrifunovicSergej Trifunović is a popular Bosnian Serb movie actor.-Biography:...
as Goran - Pascal Rollin as Paris Priest
- Catlin Foster as Christian
- John Maclaren as Colonel
- Irfan Mensur as Drill Sergeant
- Ljiljana Krstić as Old Lady
- Sanja Zogović as Girl On Bridge
- Kosta Andrejević as Boy shot on Bridge
- Veljko Otašević as Orthodox Priest
- Marina Bukvički as Muslim Girl
- Dušan Perković as Uncle Ratko
Reviews
Savior currently holds a 71% fresh rating on the review site Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film three and a half stars out of a possible four, stating that "Savior is a brutally honest war film that looks unblinkingly at how hate and prejudice can pose as patriotism."
Music
The musical arrangements were orchestrated by David RobbinsDavid Robbins
David Robbins is an artist and writer who was one of the first to investigate the art world's entrance into the culture industry....
. Choral arrangements were conducted by Gil Robbins
Gil Robbins
Gilbert Lee "Gil" Robbins was an American folk singer, folk musician and actor. Robbins was a former member of the folk band, The Highwaymen. The New York Times described Robbins as a "fixture on the folk-music scene." He was the father of actor and director, Tim Robbins.-Early life:Robbins was...
and featured the choir of Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia or Serbian Broadcasting Corporation is the public broadcaster in Serbia. It broadcasts and produces a variety of news, drama, and sports programming through radio, television and the Internet. RTS is, since July 2001, a member of the European Broadcasting Union. RTS is...
and the Belgrade Symphony Orchestra. The film featured several traditional regional folk songs, such as Zajdi, zajdi, Uspavanka (sang as a lullaby
Lullaby
A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
), and Rasti, rasti, moj zeleni bore (all used as the theme and in the credits).