John Savage Movies
While attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, John Savage helped organize a children's theatre troupe, giving non-profit performances at various housing projects. When next heard from, Savage had won a Drama Circle award for his starring performance in a Chicago-New York revival of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In films and television from 1972, Savage reached a watershed in 1975, starring as cub reporter Jim Malloy in the TV series Gibbsville and both starring in and composing the music for the theatrical feature Sister-in-Law. His career continued to flourish as the 1970s drew to a close: he played paraplegic war veteran Steven in the Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter (1978), hippie convert Claude in Hair, guilt-ridden police officer Karl Hettinger in The Onion Field (1979) and the suicidal, physically challenged Roary in Inside Moves (1980). For reasons unknown, Savage's star began fading in the 1980s, despite such choice roles as a cynical photojournalist in Oliver Stone's Salvador (1986). Most of John Savage's footage as Andrew Hagen in 1990's The Godfather III unfortunately wound up on the cutting room floor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's first American film is a romantic tale about an American war veteran whose dreams of his childhood sweetheart are countered by a less sunny reality. John Savage stars as Ivan Bibic, who has returned home to a small town in Pennsylvania, having suffered a nervous breakdown as a P.O.W. During the war, he would dream about his fiancee back home, Maria Bosic (Nastassja Kinski), imagining their forthcoming perfect marriage. At one point, Ivan is told, "You dreamed about her too long. She lives in your dreams, not in your body." And it's true -- his dreams do not equal his reality. Maria and Ivan marry, but Ivan finds that he cannot make love to the flesh and blood Maria. Knowing she was actively pursued by men in town during the war, Ivan courages her to take lovers. Maria does so, having affairs with another GI, Al Griselli (Vincent Spano), and a passing drifter named Clarence Butts (Keith Carradine). But after spending the night with Clarence, Maria becomes pregnant, and Ivan's love for her is sorely tested. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nastassja Kinski, John Savage, (more)
- 1984
Brady (John Savage) is an American bomber pilot during World War II. While flying over Nazi-occupied Hungary, Brady and his navigator, Swede (Matyas Usztic), are forced to bail out. The good news is that they don't fall into the hands of the Germans; the bad news is that they're captured by a nomadic tribe who hate Americans and Germans with equal fervor. Fortunately, the nomads agree to hide the wounded pilots from the enemy. Though Swede dies, Brady assimilates himself into rural Hungarian society, falling in love with Klara (Ildikó Bánsági) and virtually adopting war orphan Miki (Kelly Reno). The last reels of the film are devoted to Brady's efforts to escape Hungary and join the Yugoslav partisans. This pulse-pounding actioner was released in England as The Long Ride. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Savage, Kelly Reno, (more)
- 1982
Coming Out of the Ice stars John Savage as the real-life Victor Herman, an American athlete born to Ukrainian immigrants. In 1931, when Herman was sixteen, he and his family moved to the Soviet Union when his father was transferred there for his job with Ford Motor Company. Four years later, Victor won the world parachute jump competition, but refused to accept an award bestowed by Josef Stalin or to renounce his American citizenship. Presumably as a result, Herman was sentenced to hard labor and then exile in Siberia; he would not be cleared of "counterrevolutionary" charges until 1955. He eventually returned to the United States nearly 45 years after he was first imprisoned. Filmed in Finland, Coming Out the Ice was first telecast on May 23, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
CIA computer technician John Savage seeks revenge for the terrorist killing of his girlfriend. Threatening to make public his insider's information, Savage forces his reluctant bosses to train him in the art of assassination. He then heads into enemy territory (at least, it was enemy territory back in 1982) on a search-and-destroy mission. There is nothing in The Amateur that we haven't seen elsewhere, but Savage and a solid cast of supporting players Christopher Plummer,Marthe Keller, Arthur Hill, Ed Lauter, Nicholas Campbell, Jan Rubes et. al.-- keep the proceedings lively. Robert Littell co-adapted the film's screenplay from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Savage, Christopher Plummer, (more)
- 1981
- R
This offbeat and atmospheric western is set in 1893, as a gang led by longtime outlaws Bill Doolin (Burt Lancaster) and Bill Dalton (Scott Glenn) is on the verge of falling apart due to time and fatigue. A pair of teenage girls who long to be part of the outlaw mythos of the west meet up with Dalton and Doolin: Jenny (Diane Lane) and Annie (Amanda Plummer). The girls brings an unexpected second wind to the gang, as they help them plot a new series of robberies and escapes, but this burst of new activity also attracts the attention of law officer Tilghman (Rod Steiger), who is determined to put them behind bars. While Cattle Annie and Little Britches was a box office flop thanks to poor handling by the distribution company that released it, it's developed a strong reputation among film buffs and western fans; it also featured Plummer's first screen appearance. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, John Savage, (more)
Richard Donner directed this compassionate tale concerning the daily struggles of handicapped citizens. The film deals with the volatile relationship between Roary (John Savage), who has unsuccessfully tried to kill himself, and the hair-trigger Jerry (David Morse), a basketball player who has no money to pay for an operation to repair his knee. Roary, who has been permanently crippled after jumping off a building, travels an emotional route from being deeply disturbed and embittered to slowly regaining confidence in himself. Helping him along the road to emotional recovery is Louise (Diana Scarwid), a young woman dealing with the handicapped who, in the process, comes to terms with her own limitations. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Savage, David Morse, (more)
Joseph Wambaugh's The Onion Field is based on an actual 1963 case. L.A. plainclothesmen Karl Hattinger (John Savage) and Ian Campbell (Ted Danson) routinely investigate a pair of suspicious types, Greg Powell (James Woods) and Jimmy Smith (Franklin Seales). Unexpectedly, Powell pulls a gun on the cops, then forces them into a deserted onion field, where he kills Campbell in cold blood. Hattinger manages to escape, and through his eyewitness account, Powell and Smith are arrested. But that is not that. Thanks to their knowledge and manipulation of the quicksilver legal system, Powell and Smith manage to evade prosecution for years. Meanwhile, Hattinger goes through hell on earth, tortured with guilt over the fact that he lived while Campbell died so ignominiously. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Savage, James Woods, (more)
Milos Forman's adaptation of the tribal rock musical Hair stars John Savage as Claude, a quiet young man from the Midwest who becomes friendly with a group of New York hippies on his way to begin basic training in the military. The repressed Claude is quite taken with Berger (Treat Williams) and the group of freedom seekers who reside in Central Park. The group encourages Claude to go after a debutante named Sheila (Beverly D'Angelo). Legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp masterminded the dances, which attempt to flow from the natural settings of the film. The film includes most of the more famous songs from the original play, including "Donna," "Aquarius," "Easy to Be Hard," "Let the Sunshine In," "Good Morning Starshine," "Frank Mills," and the title number. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Savage, Treat Williams, (more)
One of several 1978 films dealing with the Vietnam War (including Hal Ashby's Oscar-winning Coming Home), Michael Cimino's epic second feature The Deer Hunter was both renowned for its tough portrayal of the war's effect on American working class steel workers and notorious for its ahistorical use of Russian roulette in the Vietnam sequences. Structured in five sections contrasting home and war, the film opens in Clairton, PA, as Mike (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), and Stan (John Cazale, in his last film) celebrate the wedding of their friend Steve (John Savage) and go on a final deer hunt before the men leave for Vietnam. Mike treats hunting as a test of skill, lecturing Stan about the value of "one shot" deer slaying and brushing off Nick's urgings to appreciate nature's beauty. As Mike ruminates post-hunt, the film cuts to the horror of Vietnam, where the men are captured by Vietcong soldiers who force Mike and Nick to play Russian roulette for the V.C.'s amusement. Mike turns the game to his advantage so they can escape captivity, but the men are permanently scarred by the episode. Steve loses his legs; Nick vanishes in the Saigon Russian roulette parlors. Mike returns alone to Clairton a changed man, as he rejects the killing of the deer hunt and finds solace with Nick's old girlfriend Linda (Meryl Streep). Disgusted by the antics of his male cohorts at home, Mike decides to bring Steve back from a veterans' hospital, and he returns to Saigon to find Nick. As Saigon falls, Mike discovers how far gone Nick is; the survivors gather in Clairton for a funeral breakfast, singing an impromptu rendition of "God Bless America." ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, John Cazale, (more)
- 1975
This TV movie was originally aired as John O'Hara's Gibbsville. Based on O'Hara's semi-autobiographical story anthology The Doctor's Son, the film tells the story of Jim Malloy (John Savage) and his youth in his Pennsylvania home town. Aspiring to become a reporter, Malloy goes to work for alcoholic editor Ray Whitehead. Biff McGuire plays Jim's doctor father; other cast members include Kathleen Quinlan, Peggy McCay and Janis Paige. Written and directed by playwright Frank D. Gilroy, Gibbsville: The Turning Point of Jim Malloy was first telecast April 12, 1975; it was the pilot for the Gibbsville TV series, also starring John Savage and Gig Young, which (after several delays) ran briefly in the fall of 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
In this fact-based made-for-TV tearjerker, the promising life of a talented teenage athlete is suddenly destroyed when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Despite the bad news, the boy does all he can to fight the disease. His devoted mother supports him to the bitter, inevitable end. The story is based on the experiences of Doris Lund, the late Eric's mother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This made-for-TV rural horror film from director Burt Kennedy benefits from a fine cast and a tense Clyde Ware screenplay. Samantha Eggar and Stacy Keach play motorists held prisoner by a family of seven sweet-faced young orphans and their savage guard dogs. The children only want a mother and father but are willing to kill anyone who rejects them. Jon Savage co-stars with Robby Benson, who sang the theme song. All the Kind Strangers was initially telecast November 12, 1974. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- R
In this drama, the career of an aspiring singer (John Savage) is threatened when he is drawn into the drug-smuggling organization run by his brother and his brother's seductive wife. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Savage, Anne Saxon, (more)
In this counter-culture caper comedy, directed by Alan Myerson (whose work with The Committee and Second City gives the film a quirky sketch comedy freshness), Donald Sutherland plays Veldini, a sad-eyed demolition-derby driver, serving time for larceny. He also possesses a millennial desire to wreck every car manufactured in the United States from 1940 to 1960. After being released from jail, Veldini hatches a scheme to restore an old U.S. World War II amphibian plane to escape conventional society and fly off to a new nonconformist world. Searching for spare parts to complete the restoration, Veldini realizes that a particular electrical circuit is available only at the local Navy base, and he decides to rob the base to steal the circuit. Involved in the caper with him is Iris (Jane Fonda in a burlesque of her performance in Klute) as a 100-dollar-a-night call girl who is sick of being humiliated; Veldini's kid brother (John Savage); and Eagle (Peter Boyle), a schizophrenic out-of-work circus performer. Standing in the way of Veldini's scheme is Frank Veldini (Howard Hesseman), his older brother and a politically ambitious district attorney. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, (more)
This genuinely perverse horror film stars John Savage as a young man forced to participate in the beachfront gang rape of Sue Bernard by his nasty friends. After two years in jail, he returns to the boardinghouse run by his mother (Ann Sothern), who does things like kissing him on the mouth and photographing him in the shower. Before long, he freaks out and strangles a cat while peeping at a new tenant (Cindy Williams), then almost drowns the poor girl in the pool before slashing her panties with a razor and choking her in the bathtub. He forces Bernard's car off a cliff, then makes his lawyer (Ruth Roman) drink herself stupid at knifepoint before setting her on fire. Savage and Sothern are fabulous and Luana Anders is creepy as the librarian next door who keeps trying to seduce the disturbed man. Quite a twisted little chiller, with several priceless bizarre moments like a dream sequence featuring a diapered Savage in a crib on the beach surrounded by laughing neighbors. The ubiquitous Gary Graver did 2nd unit photography. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Savage, Ann Sothern, (more)
Set during the Civil War, Bad Company stars Barry Brown as a Northern boy, Drew Dixon, who heads West to avoid getting drafted. He falls under the spell of Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges), an easygoing young con artist. Drew joins Jake's gang of boy bandits, who live by their wits and try to avoid confrontation with adult criminals like Big Joe (David Huddleston). It is Drew who must eventually save Jake from hanging, even though he realizes that his intervention could lead to his own execution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- R
Filmed in Italy by a British crew, Love is a Carousel features several fleeting celebrities of the 1970s as "themselves." What passes for a plot involves a young girl who escapes her sexually abusive household by heading to Europe. Here she is enveloped by the Anti-Establishment scene, where everything goes. Rather than return home in defeat, the girl finds she likes the counterculture-even the weirder aspects. Guest stars in Love is Carousel include Icarus, Eleanor Gary and Tee Jay Johnson; also, keep an eye out for future Dukes of Hazzard star John Savage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
