Too much of everything

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The acting in this movie is really good.

After reading some reviews and recommendations here and there, I got curious. The title, poster and plot on their own wouldn't have really drawn me to watch it.First off: it's not really bad and there are some individual scenes that are pretty intense (and even an occasional sort of funny one - with the sheep), as is the acting by Darren Healy. But the script feels like a mess and mostly like a generic series of 'must-happen' events in what has come to be known as the revenge flick, including an all-out bloody ending. For some films that works, for example 'I spit on your grave' (1978!), where form, creativity and energy really come together. 'Savage' looks bleak, and wants to paint a bleak picture of how a civilized man can totally lose himself in 'fear, control, anger and REVENGE'... Well, those 'chapters' didn't help any at all either, did they? But bleak as it tries to look, it is visually pretty uninteresting, and hard as the punchline wants to be, it doesn't punch. Not for me, anyway.That's it. A small 6? A big 5? For Healy's good effort, some proper moments and those poor sheep I will show mercy.

Watched this the other day after first hearing about it after watching the trailer for it. I found the film to be brilliantly shot by the DOP, written and directed by Brendan Muldowney. With a great lead performance by Darren Healy Hands down one of the best films I have seen in a long time and better than most of the independence films coming out of England which would have done a similar plot with a lot more unoriginal approach. A proper slow burner which takes time to build up the character of Paul Graynor who goes thought a number of different emotional states before a brutally dark, violence and realistic.

it's your typical story about a man who is viciously attacked in the most horrid way possible, and then tries his hardest to stand up for himself. It's not the Paul Kersey way that makes you route for the good guy. this is a more sinister tale of coming to terms with your life.First of all, the film is not nice. It doesn't make for pleasant viewing, and there is absolutely no relief or no part of the film after the attack that brings any comfort whatsoever, but what makes the film so compelling is the performances from the leads, and how they handle the material given to them.The savage of the title never gets redemption for what happened to him, he just becomes a loner and spends more time with the thoughts and voices in his head. To us, he is a lonely desperate man, but to others, he is a menace, depicting the people who caused his turnaround.The final ten minutes are truly awful, and very gruesome, and the film finishes abruptly and leaves you feeling dirty.All in all, the film carries some heavy morals about getting revenge, it can eat away at you and turn you into the one thing you despise.The film if viewed in a different way could be a warning about the dangers of steroids.What happens to him throughout the film emulates the typical steroid user (castration) your 'member' shrinks, you go bald, you become depressed and you become aggressive.a remarkable film

Paul Graynor (Darren Healy) is a press photographer who tends to catch the seedier parts of life, be it drunken fighting or trying to get glimpses in court of convicted rapists. His father is an invalid, confined to a nursing home, and while visiting, he strikes up a relationship with his dad's nurse Michelle. (Nora Jane No one) Returning home from a date, he is accosted and viciously assaulted by two thugs who not only beat him senseless, but castrate him, leaving him a physical and emotional wreck. At first afraid to leave his house, and then afraid on the street, he eventually seeks empowerment via self defense classes and sessions in the gym, where he bolsters himself with steroids he scores off some friendly Russians. Then anger kicks in, bolstered by nightly reports of violence on the news. Then alienation and rage follows, until finally, Paul's only course of action is brutal bloody revenge...Let's face it, we Irish suck at genre films. The best we can make a stab at is either meh/OK-ayyness such as Isolation, Dead Bodies, Spiderhole or Boy Eats Girl, to the simply crap, such as Crushproof or Dead Meat. Savage though tends to lean towards the more "okay" side of things. It's by no means great, with a rather halting performance from Darren Healy, and due to budgetary constraints, Director Brendan Muldowney unwisely goes the jump cut editing route which is a pet peeve of mine.On a plus side though, it looks quite decent production values wise, is well shot and manages to make my home city of Dublin look nicely grim and foreboding, although in fairness, it isn't much of a stretch to achieve this. The casting in regards to the scumbags is spot on, with them looking and sounding exactly like your average skanger/chav (white trash scum, to any American readers) one can see on my fair city streets at any given time of the day or night.Told in four segments entitled "Fear", "Control", "Anger" and "Revenge", it's more of a slow burning psychological drama as opposed to an exploitative revenge flick, which takes time to get to its payoff, so as a result won't be to everyone's tastes.However, its revenge climax is sufficiently brutal, if somewhat brief, culminating in a realistic enough looking beheading complete with stomach churning sound FX. A preceding revenge scene involving a screwdriver actually made me cringe a bit, so props to Muldowney for that one.So, in conclusion, for Ireland's first revenge film it's... okaaay. Not great, but not bad either. Worth a rental anyway. 6/10 overall.