Safe Passage

PG-13

1994

1 hr. 36 min.

Drama

List

54%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

73%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Mag Singer (Susan Sarandon) is an obsessive and superstitious mother who must face the severe issues that threaten to tear apart her entire family. One of her several sons, all of whom are grown, might have been killed in the Middle East, where he was serving in the Marines. The rest of her sons and her estranged husband (Sam Shepard) gather at her home to help each other through this trying period. Accompanying them, unfortunately, are the sins and regrets of the past.

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Audience Member

The greatest 01 hour: and 36 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Enjoyable to watch, great acting. It is unfortunate that this movie is difficult to find and stream.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Audience Member

A very good film. Great cast as well. A heartfelt movie.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

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Audience Member

not too bad kinda sad

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

(a rough draft, written for The Watermark, 01/21/95, but not published) In Safe Passage, Susan Sarandon and Sam Shepard are parents who receive the unwelcome news that one of their sons who is a Marine in the Persian Gulf may have died in an unexpected explosion at his Marine base. Their other six sons all return home to await the news from Washington as to whether he is a casualty or a survivor. While the family is back under one roof and facing the possibility of losing one of their own, they all must face their past as a family unit, and their own scattered relationships as individuals. What is so well conveyed in Safe Passage is the fact that it focuses on the trivial - waiting - while always remaining interesting and well structured in its everyday feeling in the dialogue, the situatons, and the camerawork. The laughs in the film occur only where situations call for it, such as Sarandon and Shepard arguing at top volume over whether the church in which they were married was the Chapel of Harmony or Bliss. More impressively is that nothing is heavily contrived, and no conflict is forced to keep the film moving: lesser films would have involved more petty bickering among the brothers and the parents. One sequence, where they all clean out the garage, is marvelous both in its release of nervous energy and in its symbolism of the dumping of the familys baggage which we see taking place in the film. Another brilliant moment is a shot of their TV screen and the news reporting on the explosion, and the TV is switched off to show the reflection of the entire family in the screen - all together as one unit, focused on one goal. The real craft of such a realization film as this is that it has no lustrous Hollywood quality to it. If it had tried to pass off that all of this familys problems can be solved within a three-day period, it would have bordered on melodrama. One plot device, where Shepard inexplicably has spells of blindness, is pleasantly surprising in its resolution, and has a nice humility about it. What we are left with instead is a positive feeling about this group, and a sense that the past two hours have at least started them on the right path to correcting their problems. The films end, when they finally get the news about their son, is where the film shows whether or not it has succeeded: Are we as emotional as the family? Do we cry with them? Do we care? The answer is yes, and no audience member can say she or he didnt feel like a member of the family and that you have lived through this crisis with them.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Saradon tries, but God this is some painfully pretentious shit. She's nuts, dad's an asshole and they have so many kids (most of them uber-neurotic, of course) that you sing the "Because Our Sperm is Sacred" song from MONTY PYTHON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE. The soundtrack ain't bad but poorly used.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

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Robert Allan Ackerman

Director

Susan Sarandon

Margaret "Mag" Singer

Sam Shepard

Patrick Singer

Robert Sean Leonard

Alfred Singer

Sean Astin

Izzy Singer

Marcia Gay Harden

Cynthia

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Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: B-

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Rated: 2.5/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Most of the time, I found myself watching the plot like an elaborate wind-up mechanical device. I was not often convinced this story was really happening, or to real people. It was more like an exercise in dramatic construction.

Rated: 2/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

Rated: 2/5

Oct 9, 2005

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Jul 4, 2005

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Rachel Gordon

Filmcritic.com

The end is clear from the start, but it's rather amusing to watch nonetheless, backed by a strong, eclectic cast.

Rated: 3.5/5

Jan 3, 2004

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Synopsis

Mag Singer (Susan Sarandon) is an obsessive and superstitious mother who must face the severe issues that threaten to tear apart her entire family. One of her several sons, all of whom are grown, might have been killed in the Middle East, where he was serving in the Marines. The rest of her sons and her estranged husband (Sam Shepard) gather at her home to help each other through this trying period. Accompanying them, unfortunately, are the sins and regrets of the past.

Director: Robert Allan Ackerman
Executive Producer: Betsy Beers, David Gale, Ruth Vitale
Screenwriter: Deena Goldstone
Production Co: New Line Cinema, Pacific Western
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.6M
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo