Savages – The New Oliver Stone Film

Here’s a question for you: If I ask you to name your favorite ‘legendary’ film director, would your answer be Oliver Stone? While I’ve seen so many of his films, somehow his name is never on the tip of my tongue. Maybe that is because at times, rather going for great, he goes for controversial. Still not sure and need to consider the question? Okay, how about a list of films that have Oliver Stone’s imprint on them to help you consider?

Director: Savages, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, World Trade Center, Nixon, Natural Born Killers, JFK, The Doors, Born on the Fourth of July, Talk Radio, Wall Street, Platoon, and Salvador.

Writer: Evita, Heaven & Earth, 8 Million Ways to Die, Year of the Dragon, Scarface, Conan The Barbarian, and Midnight Express.

Producer: Alexander, The Corrupter, The People vs Larry Flynt, Freeway, The Joy Luck Club, and Blue Steel.

Now in many cases, Stone wore all three hats, or just two out of the three. Still, no matter how you look at it, Oliver Stone has been a major player in the culture of film; and we can certainly say that his work has been impactful.

This brings us to his latest film called Savages. It opened yesterday, July 6th. Yes, it is a tale about pot dealers having to face off against a Mexican Cartel. Yes, it will have a resemblance to Scarface, to Blow, to Carlito’s Way, and many others.

Chon, O, and Ben spend a quiet evening dining

Savages has six main players, and two important supporting roles. On one side we have the pot grower/dealers. They have produced the best cannabis in the world. For those with a discerning taste, their weed goes for a mere $6000 a pound. Chon, is played by Taylor Kitsch who started the year with two losers called John Carter and Battleship. Here he’s an ex-Navy Seal and he did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He came home from the war with a jar of seeds.

His best pal, since they were kids, is Ben who is played by Aaron Johnson. I’m looking forward to his next film Anna Karenina – he plays Count Vronsky. In this one, he’s the botanist and he knows everything there is to know about hydroponics, or soil and sunlight,  as well as the business side of pot. Hence their product was the best available anywhere and they even made it semi-legit as a good part of their agricultural business was selling legal medicinal herb.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Everything is BIG in Oliver Stone’s sequel to his 1987 film Wall Street. This one is called Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. As the film opens, Gordon Gekko (reprised by Michael Douglas) is being released from prison. As the property clerk returns Gekko’s personal items to him including a gold Cartier ‘Santos’ watch, a gold ring, a gold money clip with no money, and an outsized mobile phone – about the size of your shoe, you will think back to the time when Gekko was the king of the corporate raiders. When “Greed, for a lack of a better word – was Good”. It is now 2001 and Gekko no longer commands the attention fitting for one who was called (in another time and place) A Master of the Universe. In fact, upon his release, Gekko found no one waiting for him.

Stone then fast forwards us to 2008. We see some astonishing crane shots of New York’s glass and steel skyscrapers. We watch as the Wall Street news is flashed on-screen for us. As the camera pans across this city-scape, we are going to eventually find ourselves in a magnificent huge apartment/penthouse/loft (pick one – they all fit) belonging to Jake Moore (Shia LaBoeuf) and his girl friend Winnie Gekko. Yes, she’s that Gekko, as in Gordon’s daughter, and she’s played by Carey Mulligan.

Jake Moore is a successful investment banker/proprietary trader for a firm called Keller Zabel whose head guy, Louis Zabel, is played by a charismatic Frank Langella. He is Jake Moore’s boss, he is Jake Moore’s idol, as well as father figure. Within minutes of the film’s opening, Zabel gives Moore an off-cycle bonus. The amount is $1,450.000.

Also within minutes the firm we once knew as Keller Zabel is reduced to a smoldering fiscal ruin. This financial coup-de-grace was engineered by Bretton James, who heads up Churchill, Schwartz. They are a modern-day successor to Gekko’s firm. Bretton (not Brett) is played by James Brolin. Everything about this guy is ostentatious. His credo and mantra is mine is bigger than yours. And he wants to prove it to you over and over again.