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Savages | 2012 | R | - 8.9.10
A Buddhist (Aaron Johnson) and his buddy (Taylor Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL, are partners growing a very potent marijuana crop and they also happily cohabit with a shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) in Laguna Beach. The Mexican Baja Cartel suddenly appears and orders the three to join them, and when they refuse their girlfriend is kidnapped. Also with Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro and John Travolta. Directed by Oliver Stone. [2:10]
SEX/NUDITY 8 - There are several aggressive sex scenes: We see a man's bare back and buttocks as he grunts and thrusts violently into a woman lying under him on a couch, moaning, and her bare thighs and legs are wrapped around his waist (she is clothed above the waist); in a voiceover, we hear her say that she has orgasms while he has "wargasms" and that sex helps him forget the war in Afghanistan.
► After being kidnapped, a woman is drugged by a man (please see the Substance Use category for more details) and when she awakens the man shows her a video of him raping her from behind; in the video, she is clothed, groaning and screaming as he grunts.
► A man lies in a bathtub (we see his bare chest), a woman in a short sundress over a bathing suit climbs in with him and they kiss; the camera cuts to the couple in bed, where he removes the bottom of her bikini and they begin to have sex (we see his bare back and buttocks while she is still wearing her sundress). Several scenes show two men caressing a woman's breasts through her shirt and her thighs that show from under a short skirt; in one scene, one man removes his shirt and we see his bare chest and sex is implied between the men and the woman in these scenes. In an apartment bedroom we see a clothed woman with her dress pulled up to mid-thigh, straddling a man lying under the covers but with his bare chest exposed while she bounces up and down and they both moan, until the phone rings and they stop.
► A woman walks up behind a man, reaches around him and forcefully rubs his groin, asking him to come outside with her; he says he will come out later. A woman tells two men that she loves each of them and kisses them both while all three sit on a couch.
► A woman walks from a bedroom, while wearing an open translucent jacket that reveals her bare breasts, abdomen, thighs and legs and says to a man, "I want more," suggesting sex.
► A bedroom scene features two nude men on their backs in bed with a sheet covering their groins (we see bare chests and thighs) and a woman lying between them wearing a short sundress that reveals full legs, arms and shoulders.
► A topless woman is shown in a man's room. Two women wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage, bare shoulders and arms. A woman wears a series of short sundresses over a bikini bathing suit, revealing bare legs as well as shoulders and arms. Several beach scenes feature women wearing skimpy bikinis that reveal full legs, abdomens, cleavage and bare shoulders and arms. A man appears in several scenes shirtless, revealing bare chest and back partially covered in tattoos. A woman has tattoos on her shoulders and upper back.
► One man tells another man, "Keep banging that sweet California [anatomical term deleted]." A man says that a woman and two other men she reportedly has sex with simultaneously are savages. A woman refers to a man's penis using crude terms. A woman advises a younger woman that her two boyfriends love each other more than they love her, because they share her. A woman says that she does not know if three people can equally love one another.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 9 - A man is hung from a warehouse ceiling by his wrists and bullwhipped until his face and chest are cut and bleeding and an eye falls out, he is then cut down, a rubber tire is put over his head to secure his arms, gasoline is doused onto him and another man lights him up using a flare; the man runs around the warehouse on fire, screaming and he collapses to the floor as the scene ends.
► Several men kneel in a line in a dimly lit building, other men wearing skeleton masks appear and we hear a chainsaw buzz, the screen goes black, we hear screaming and we see severed heads with bloody necks on the floor along with headless bodies hanging from the walls (all covered in blood); men wearing masks kick the severed heads around the floor.
► A drug dealer enters the house of a man and shoots him in both knees and then the throat as the man tries to crawl away (we see blood drain and smear on the floor); a younger man holds a rosary while he shoots a woman in the house in the head off screen and we hear her scream (the younger man crosses himself). A man reaches through the window of a parked car, slices the throat of a man and we see gushes of blood. A man shoots another man in the head after telling him he is too sensitive; we see some blood at the wound between the eyes. A motorcycle cop pulls a man over and shoots him in the throat with a silenced pistol (blood splatters). Two men rendezvous with a federal agent; one man stabs the agent in the hand and we see blood, followed by bandages and another Band-Aid on his eyebrow in several scenes.
► A woman imagines a hostage exchange with armed soldiers and men on two sides of a desert area: as two women are exchanged, shooting breaks out and every person is shot multiple times, with gushing blood from leg, chest and throat wounds; two men and a woman take lethal injections lying side-by-side and shivering.
► Former soldiers attack a drug cartel's hideout and blow up 4 SUVs with grenades; we see a lot of smoke and flames as SUVs tear apart and flip over along with dead men lying around the vehicles (their heads and faces are torn and bloody).
► After being kidnapped, a woman is drugged by a man (please see the Substance Use category for more details) and when she awakens the man shows her a video of him raping her from behind; in the video, she is clothed, groaning and screaming as he grunts.
► A man kidnaps a woman and we see her stuffed into a refrigerator full of bags of ice, tied at the wrists and ankles, with her mouth duct taped (she cries and shivers) and a man slams the door on her.
► A woman orders two men to bring her 300 pounds of drugs or their girlfriend will have the fingers of her right hand cut off; the camera cuts to the girlfriend tied in a chair, screaming while a man holds a knife to her fingers and another man holds an axe to her throat. We see a laptop screen showing real time footage of a woman tied into a chair in a house and we see that her lower lip is bloody and her forehead is scratched; the screen then shows the woman as a cartoon, beheaded and with the bloody head bouncing around. A man is told over the phone that a woman will be held hostage for one year and the camera cuts to the woman, wearing a heavy ankle chain and later, chains connecting her wrists; we see that her bed is a cot encased in a wire cage.
► A man goes to the apartment of a customer to collect money form a drug deal and when the customer refuses to pay, a fistfight begins as the scene ends. A woman slaps a man and another woman in the face in separate scenes.
► While sitting at a restaurant table, a man hears a waiter drop a tray, the man drops to the floor and pulls a gun and when he realizes what happened, he puts the gun in his waistband.
► A woman walks in a shopping mall and is followed several men and women; she leaves the mall and her bodyguard follows her in his SUV.
► Two men tell a woman's mother that they will kill the daughter unless their demands are met to release their partner. A man says to a federal agent, "I will whack your daughters and burn down your house." A Mexican drug lord tells an American man that Mexicans blow up their enemies' balls, wives and children. A woman using Tarot cards predicts impending violence. A man tells his friend that they should kill two drug dealers and send them home in a cereal box; he says they are savages. A man says that a woman is dead, meaning he will kill her. A woman says that her husband and sons died, murdered by a rival drug cartel. A woman narrator says several times that she may be dead by the end of her story.
► A passenger in a van loads a rifle in case a policeman pulls the van over before it can reach Mexico with a load of drugs. We see a hotel room coffee table with handguns and clips loaded with ammunition.
► A man sits beside his comatose, dying wife in a hospital bed; we see her bald head from the side. An oil painting depicts Shakespeare's Ophelia lying drowned in a pond. A man has scars from knife cuts on his temple and neck.
► A man shakes, cries and vomits after an attack on a hideout that left many men dead; we see the goo. A woman spits into the face of a man, who wipes his face with his fingers, licks his fingers and then wipes his face with her long blonde hair.
LANGUAGE 10 - About 85 F-words, 1 obscene hand gesture, 3 sexual references, 49 scatological terms, 10 anatomical terms, 1 mild obscenity, derogatory terms for homosexuals, derogatory terms fro Hispanics, name-calling (crazy, jerk, sailor, fat Indian, knucklehead, playboy, buddy boy, gringoland, GI Jack, SEAL boy), stereotypical references to men, women, Mexicans, Africans, Asians, corporations, soldiers, police officers, federal agents, drug dealers, Buddhists, exclamations (shut up), 8 religious profanities, 4 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - A woman drinks a glass of water that contains drugs and she is raped later while semi-conscious (please see the Sex/Nudity and Violence/Gore categories for more details), we see men and women snort cocaine through rolled up dollar bills three times, a man inhales cocaine from the edge of a kitchen knife and then licks the knife, a woman smokes some sort of drug from a handheld pipe and exhales smoke, a woman and two men smoke an unknown drug from a bong and giggle and the woman seems hung over the next morning, two men smoke marijuana cigarettes, a woman in a holding cell in Mexico asks for something to take off "the edge" of withdrawal and a man blows marijuana smoke form his cigarette into her face and she inhales that, two men and a woman smoke marijuana cigarettes on a beach, we see long tables full of processed marijuana in jars and bags, we see bags of white powder that is presumably cocaine, a high-speed series of film clips show images of stacks of money next to bags of marijuana, we hear that two American men grow marijuana that has the highest level of TCH in the world (33%), we see a large basement growing-field under fluorescent lights and containers filled with marijuana plants, we see handfuls of marijuana seeds, a woman buys medicinal marijuana in an authorized store, a drug dealer tells a friend that he will send marijuana for the friend's wife to use to ease the side effects of chemotherapy, men and women purchase small marijuana plants in cafes, a bike messenger delivers medicinal marijuana to a patient at home, a woman asks a man at home if he wants to smoke some drugs and he agrees to do so later, and a woman says that she has been using drugs since the 8th grade and her parents did not know or care. Two men drink shots of Tequila, two men drink beer while sitting on a beach, a hotel room coffee table is covered with open bottles and glasses of alcohol, a bar and restaurant scene shows men and women drinking wine in a bar, a woman drinks shots of Tequila at home, and men drink beer from bottles as they watch another man burn to death (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man smokes three tobacco cigarettes on a street, and a man smokes a cigarette
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Illegal sales and use of marijuana and cocaine, medicinal marijuana, Mexican drug problems, murder, corrupt government officials, polyandry, families, friends, responsibilities, choices.
MESSAGE - Drug dealing is a savage business.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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