Savior

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Savior

R

Released Nov 20, 1998

1h 43m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

60%

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10 Reviews

80%

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2,500+ Ratings

After military specialist Joshua Rose (Dennis Quaid) loses his wife (Nastassja Kinski) and son in a terrorist bomb attack in Paris, he joins the Foreign Legion as a form of revenge against Muslims. He ends up an anonymous mercenary in Bosnia, fighting with the Serbs, but his resolve is tested by the cruelty and horror of ethnic cleansing. When Joshua encounters Vera (Natasa Ninkovic), a young, pregnant Serbian woman due to be killed for her dishonor, he finds a reason to fight.

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: C

Sep 7, 2011

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Savior is a brutally honest war film that looks unblinkingly at how hate and prejudice can pose as patriotism.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jan 1, 2000

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Entertainment Weekly

Rated: C

Nov 20, 1998

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Grant Watson

Fiction Machine

This bleak, somewhat relentless film about an American mercenary in the Bosnian War found little success back in 1998. Rewatched some decades later, and its brutal moments of violence and queasy moral ambivalence give a clear indication why that was.

Rated: 7/10

Mar 27, 2025

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Pablo Villaça

Cinema em Cena

Filme injustamente ignorado, brutal em sua mensagem humanitria e traz Quaid na melhor atuao de sua carreira.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 31, 2007

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Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality & Practice

A very violent drama that takes a visceral stand against vengeance and ethnic cleansing.

Aug 21, 2002

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Rost M

As of writing this review I first watched this movie 26 years ago and it as always stuck with me. It's one of the few war movies with no good or bad side's no matter what the low reviews on here are saying it shows good and bad on all sides. The only reason I can think it has such a low score with critics is becuse it's not about super heros in spandex full of product placemets and pandering. It's a goodnl watch if you're looking for something and it's a unknown gem and when I'm writing this it's on a few free streaming sigts

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/29/24

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Audience Member

Harrowing, yet a truly great film.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/10/24

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roberto r

Great film, in my opinion a little masterpiece.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/20/24

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Steve D

Well acted but too quick to forgive its characters atrocities.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

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Audience Member

Shameless Serbian propaganda. As it is usual in serbian films they are the victims and Bosniaks and Croats are mostly evil. Yet International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in Hague tells a different story.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

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brendan n

Savior is one of those films that escaped me after its VHS release. The version I watched on Amazon wasn't a very good transfer but what started out in an odd manner, soon turned into something special. Dennis Quaid hasn't been an actor that I've enjoyed and I found the majority of his films fell away from my type of films, but this was an awakening for me and I wish he had done more risky ventures like Savior. The budget is low and by all appearances this film has been swept under the rug. I enjoyed the film and would love to see it in a higher transfer someday. It's not a classic but it has some hard story beats and Quaid knocks his performance out of the park. 05/11/2020

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Peter Antonijevic

Director

Dennis Quaid

Joshua Rose

Nastassja Kinski

Maria

Stellan Skarsgård

Peter

Nataša Ninković

Vera

Sergej Trifunovic

Goran

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Synopsis

After military specialist Joshua Rose (Dennis Quaid) loses his wife (Nastassja Kinski) and son in a terrorist bomb attack in Paris, he joins the Foreign Legion as a form of revenge against Muslims. He ends up an anonymous mercenary in Bosnia, fighting with the Serbs, but his resolve is tested by the cruelty and horror of ethnic cleansing. When Joshua encounters Vera (Natasa Ninkovic), a young, pregnant Serbian woman due to be killed for her dishonor, he finds a reason to fight.

Director: Peter Antonijevic
Producer: Oliver Stone, Janet Yang
Screenwriter: Robert Orr
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: 20th Century Fox, Janet Yang Productions, Initial Entertainment Group
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 20, 1998, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): May 1, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $12.9K
Runtime: 1h 43m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital, Surround

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