Le libérateur

I watched this movie with skepticism but I have to admit I was wrong. This is a powerful movie and it left me drained out by the time it got over. The last 15 to 20 minutes are sure to move even the cold hearted so,I am surprised and saddened that there are still some folks here at the forum fighting over its anti/pro Muslim/Serbian credentials.

There is no winner in any war - only despair & death and at times, a faint glimmer of hope. Saviour depicts this with astonishing realism and at times,is difficult to watch but I guess that what war is all about. Dennis Quaid gives an Oscar winning performance and considering, the fact that Oliver Stone produced this, it has a antiwar platoonesque feel to it.

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..

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.

One of the most painful depictions of war I've ever seen, this shows the effect of a civil war on ordinary people in a very powerful way. Stony-faced Dennis Quaid is excellent as ever as the emotionally-shut-off mercenary tiring of the pointless and unresolvable fighting in Bosnia, slowly allowing himself to feel again some years after the horrific death of his family when a woman and child inveigle themselves into his life. Some of the scenes in here are beyond horrific, particularly near the end where a massacre of civilians is made to seem quite dull and everyday to the killers. The pointlessness of such tribal warfare is emphasised by the shadowy depiction of the combatants, the almost total absence of 'good guys' and 'baddies' - I for one could rarely tell which side the soldiers on screen were supposed to represent. Certainly not for the fainthearted, this is war in all its foulness and degredation, fully exposing the evil mankind can inflict on itself. Not pleasant viewing, but a moving, powerful experience.

At first on hearing Dennis Quaid I thought this would be usual "Hollywood Hero saves the world" offering from the Hollywood Studios. How wrong I was,Dennis Quaid gives a stunning performance of a good man struggling to understand a world of brutality and inhumanity. Against all odds he does what he thinks his right and realizes the baby represents the only hope he and the human race have? There will probably be critics from those who were involved the conflict who will say this is an inaccurate "Hollywood Version" of events.This may or may not be true, but what Quaid has done here is made a bridge from the world depicted here and the rest of the world not involved in the conflict, enabling us to understand it more.

This film is not mainstream enough to have become a blockbuster,with lots of honours, but I would like to think Quaid and Kinski will remain justifiably proud of their involvement in this film for all time.