6 / 10
Official trailer
Savages is Oliver Stone’s 2012 American crime drama adapting Don Winslow’s 2010 novel.
The film depicts two California marijuana entrepreneurs whose girlfriend is kidnapped by the Baja Cartel. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Ben, the chemistry-trained grower. Taylor Kitsch plays Chon, the ex-Navy SEAL enforcer. Blake Lively plays Ophelia, the shared girlfriend. Salma Hayek plays cartel leader Elena. Benicio del Toro plays cartel enforcer Lado. John Travolta plays a corrupt DEA agent. Shane Salerno, Don Winslow, and Stone wrote the screenplay. Universal Pictures produced the film, which grossed approximately 82 million dollars worldwide.
The work is Stone’s late-career attempt to engage with contemporary American drug trade material.
The film works effectively in individual sequences but struggles to maintain coherent broader argument. The Travolta supporting performance is among the work’s strongest elements. The Hayek-del Toro cartel scenes generate serious dramatic tension. The young leads don’t match the surrounding cast’s accumulated authority. The screenplay generates plot situations effectively but doesn’t develop characters at sufficient depth to support the runtime. The result is uneven commercial drama that suggests stronger work than it delivers.
I come away from Savages half satisfied and half annoyed. Whenever Hayek, del Toro or Travolta is on screen I lean in, and whenever the story drifts back to Ben, Chon and Ophelia, I start watching the clock. That split is the whole 6. I’d have happily traded half the young leads’ screen time for more of the cartel.
The Hayek-del Toro Cartel Sequences
Salma Hayek’s cartel leader Elena and Benicio del Toro’s enforcer Lado are the best reasons to watch. They bring an authority the rest of the cast can’t match, and the cartel scenes play at an intensity the marijuana-business scenes never reach. Del Toro scares me more than anything else in the film, and Hayek runs her empire with a chill I wanted twice as much of.
The casting reflects Stone’s specific interest in the cartel material as central dramatic content.
The director’s screenplay choices and production approach emphasize the cartel sequences over the American protagonist material. The technique produces dramatic imbalance between the two storylines but suggests where the work’s actual interests sit. The completed film works more effectively in the cartel material than in the American protagonist material.
For Writers
Casting can reveal a work’s actual dramatic interests when supporting performances exceed lead performances. Savages’s cartel sequences work in a higher key than its American protagonist material. Apply this to fiction. Consider whether your supporting and lead character investments match your dramatic interests.
The Travolta Supporting Performance
John Travolta’s corrupt DEA agent is the film’s other strong element. The part needs sustained moral slipperiness alongside real institutional authority, and Travolta holds both without the character coming apart. He’s the most fun I had with the film, and I kept wishing Stone had built the movie around him instead of the young leads.
The supporting role reflects Travolta’s capacity to deliver committed work in suitable material.
The actor’s late-career filmography has included real range from major dramatic roles to commercial action to occasional commercial failures. Savages represents one of the stronger entries in this varied late career. The performance shows the actor’s continuing professional reliability even when the surrounding material doesn’t match his contribution.
For Writers
Established performers can deliver committed work in suitable material across long careers. Apply this to creative work broadly. Consider whether your established contributors continue to develop or work at reduced tone in later career.
The Stone Late Career
Oliver Stone’s filmography had included JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), and serious earlier major work. The director’s late career has produced varied results. Savages represents one of the stronger late entries despite its structural problems. The work shows the director’s continuing interest in American institutional engagement combined with reduced capacity for sustained dramatic development.
Stone’s signature techniques, aggressive editing, shifting film stocks and blunt political commentary, don’t fit cleanly with contemporary commercial expectations, and the film tries to use them inside a structure that boxes them in. I’ll take messy Stone over tidy anonymous product. Still, the tricks feel like habits here, and they never justify themselves the way they did in his best work. The result is uneven but more interesting than a purely commercial version would have been.
For Writers
Distinctive techniques can become constrained within contemporary commercial expectations. Apply this to creative work broadly. Consider whether your distinctive approaches work freely or face constraints from contemporary commercial requirements.
Craft Note
The Salerno-Winslow-Stone screenplay represents collaborative adaptation that combines source material knowledge with directorial perspective. The completed screenplay doesn’t fully resolve the tensions between these contributions. Multi-author screenplays require considerable coordination that this production didn’t fully achieve.
Is Savages worth watching?
A 6. Hayek, del Toro and Travolta give the film a pulse, the cartel scenes have real menace, and Stone’s style still has some bite.
The trouble is that the story keeps handing the wheel back to two young leads who can’t match the people around them, inside a screenplay that stages plot well and builds characters poorly. Watch it for the supporting cast and for late Stone, and expect a film that’s better in pieces than as a whole.
