Review of Saved!

Introduction

Often society takes an odd path that gives me pause for thought, and I often wish that someone would hold up a mirror so that people could take a look at themselves. Aside from the obvious association with vanity, a mirror can serve a useful purpose as a tool to reveal the less than pleasant side of a personality or society in general. Films can be ideal mirrors in this respect, whether through wit, satire or drama, they can look at trends in society, or history from a unique perspective and point out the flaws, the absurdities, and the irrationalities that drive us as people. Of course the people holding up the mirrors are more often than not vilified, hounded and pursued. No one ever said it would be easy to possess common sense.

One of the trends in modern society that raises cause for concern is that of religious fundamentalism. The reasons are myriad, from war and oppression to a perceived decline in morality, but more and more people are turning to religion to find some sort of focus to their lives, and wherever there is religion, there are those who preach an extreme form of that religion. Currently in the United States, a significant proportion of the population subscribe to a strict interpretation of Christianity, and on occasion it can appear an insular and aggressive denomination that has more to do with exclusion than acceptance. When the current President is reportedly a deeply religious man, who makes his decisions based upon his faith, who is currently waging a war on terror in order to export his vision of liberty to the `oppressed` people of the world, it becomes a useful exercise to try and understand exactly what faith means to such a man, and those who support him. Saved! is a satire that looks at fundamentalist Christian beliefs through the eyes of the pupils who attend the American Eagles Christian High School, an institution that instils core moral values in the students according to the good book.

Mary is a model student, a committed Born Again Christian, who is a member of the Christian Jewels, a girl gang led by her best friend Hilary Faye. Together they rejoice in their piety, demonstrate against abortion, and try to save as many souls as possible. Her life couldn`t be more perfect, that is until the day her boyfriend Dean admits to her that he is gay. When she receives a vision telling her to help Dean, she misinterprets it to mean to `de-gayify` him, and if it means sacrificing her own purity to do so, she doesn`t hesitate. Unfortunately her cure isn`t successful, and Dean`s parents soon pack him off to the Mercy House, an institution for those who have strayed from the pure path. Not only must Mary contend with the stigma of having a gay boyfriend, but also her faith is shaken completely when she learns that she is pregnant. To avoid becoming a resident of Mercy House herself as an unwed mother, she decides to conceal her pregnancy until after graduation. In a school full of born again Christians, that isn`t an easy thing to do, and she`s soon making friends with those outcasts she would previously have looked down upon, convincing her old friends that she too has fallen from the true way.

Video

The picture is presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, and given that Saved! is a recent film, it`s hard to find fault with the transfer. It`s clear and sharp, and there is the slightest hint of grain. Other than that, there is nothing to complain about.

Audio

The sound similarly is hard to fault. A DD 5.1 English track puts the surrounds to suitable use to convey ambience, the music and the occasional effect. This being an MGM disc, it`s Europe friendly, and you`ll find one of those Polish voiceovers, with a deep voiced male speaking over all the dialogue. There is also a DD 2.0 Hungarian dub should you prefer, along with many subtitles. The dialogue is clear throughout, and there is plenty of God Rock to tap your feet to.

Features

As with any film made in the DVD age, no film is released without a raft of extras, but without the space to evaluate the film on its own merits, more often than not the extras that are provided are the usual EPK stuff and nonsense. It`s interesting to note that the director`s commentary was recorded prior to the film`s theatrical release, and is evidence that studios more often than not have the DVD release in mind when they make movies today.

Anyway, Saved! comes with the usual animated menus, the theatrical trailer, and an inconsequential 4-minute featurette called Heaven Help Us purporting to give a behind the scenes look at the film but barely having enough time to repeat the trailer.

There are 11 additional scenes, all bunched together under the heading of Alternate/Deleted/Extended Scenes. As per usual with these scenes, some are better out than in, and vice versa. They are presented in 4:3 letterbox and in VHS quality. There`s no play all option and no commentary to place the scenes in context.

There are 4 bloopers, and for a change they are actually funny.

Saved Revelations feature some more deleted snippets from the film, extra naughtiness that didn`t make the final cut.

There are two commentary tracks on this disc, both presented in DD 2.0 Surround.

The first is the director`s commentary, recorded with Brian Dannelly, Producer Sandy Stern, and co-writer Michael Urban. As I mentioned previously, this was recorded prior to the film`s theatrical release, and you do get a flavour of the controversy it was generating in America at the time, and how hard it was getting the film green lighted in the current climate in the US. That said, it`s your by the numbers director`s commentary, I`m sure you`ve heard umpteen like it. It`s subtitled in English and Dutch.

Stars Jena Malone and Mandy Moore provide the second commentary; it`s more of a personal view of the filmmaking experience, and they are more apt to joke around. It is fairly interesting to listen to. It is subtitled in English only, and I did notice that the subtitles weren`t always in sync with the speakers.

Finally, I found an Easter Egg on this disc, a brief message from the producer Michael Stipe.

All the extras are subtitled where necessary.

Conclusion

I must admit to feeling a little disappointed with Saved! From what I had read and heard about the film, and the controversy it had generated in the US, I was expecting something with a little more satirical bite, something a little more cutting. Instead, Saved! is much like any other teen drama/comedy when it comes to the story and the characters. When it comes to the issue of fundamental religious beliefs, Saved! plays it safe, preferring to give the subject more of a gentle poke than really asking any thoughtful questions. That isn`t to say that it is afraid to cause offence, as when Mary finds out she`s pregnant and has her crisis of faith, a scene where she stands in front of a cross swearing and cursing, is pretty much guaranteed to cause offence.

The film starts off with a promise of much more. We are introduced to the Christian Jewels, a girl gang who ascribe to an almost militant interpretation of faith, who speak of saving souls, who espouse the kind of missionary work that went hand in hand with colonialism a hundred years ago, and adopt the `my God is bigger than your God` attitude that has started countless wars. The juxtaposition of these `pious` girls working out their frustrations at a firing range also raised my eyebrows. The film also asks the questions of a societal group that espouses institutionalising those who don`t live up to the ideal in an effort to `cure them`. We are introduced to the proselytising headmaster Pastor Skip who speaks in a streetwise rap, as well as two unconventional characters that seem out of place in the school. Cassandra is Jewish, and after a history of making trouble, American Eagles is the last school she can get into. It isn`t much of a surprise that most of the other students are intent on saving her soul. Also in the school is Hilary Faye`s brother Roland, a wheelchair bound boy who is lauded for his different-abledness, but is somewhat belittled by his sister and as much an outsider as Cassandra. He`s also hardly the Christian his sister claims to be.

There are moments in the film early on that are a little unsettling, satirical, and challenging when it comes to the attitudes of the aggressively devout. I laughed at the point when Mary is about to take a pregnancy test, and she mutters, "Please let it be cancer, please let it be cancer". In the end however, the film veers away from answering any of these questions, and instead settles comfortably into the high school vernacular of most other teen films. Once again, the climax of a teen film is more concerned with who is asking who to the prom and who`s the most popular in the school. In that light the characters are achingly familiar, Hilary Faye is the popular one, and her popularity and vanity will be key to her downfall. Mary is the best friend, the one who is hardly ever noticed, but through her change in circumstances discovers her independence and free will, no longer having to conform to societal norms. Roland and Cassandra are the school rebels, the outsiders who help Mary on her journey of self-discovery. It`s not so much faith that is in question here, rather the fallibility of those who hold themselves to the perfect ideal of that faith. The ultimate disappointment is in the end of the film, which really does boil down to the question of whether or not our heroes get to go to the prom, all spiritual matters pretty much forgotten.

The film is held together by some strong performances though, especially by Mandy Moore as the ultra-zealot Hilary Faye and Jena Malone as Mary. There is good support too from McCauley Culkin and Eva Amurri, and Martin Donovan is entertaining as the somersaulting preacher, Pastor Skip.

Saved! is a film that has been made before, a humorous look at peer pressure in high school, and while the veneer of religious fundamentalism initially gives it a certain freshness, that freshness soon fades into a comfortable familiarity. While the film is enjoyable, it`s hardly original, and it`s also hardly as offensive as it claims to be.