Movie Review: Samaritan
An enjoyable film about redemption that stands out from a sea of mediocrity
In today’s myopic landscape of disposable CGI spectacle films of established IP’s, it can be difficult to find something that feels truly authentic and genuine. Attempting to find a film that is all of that AND enjoyable is basically a Sisyphean effort. Enter the recent low-budget action superhero film Samaritan, starring Sylvester Stallone, a film that checks all the boxes and provides a delightful reprieve from the constant audience lecturing garbage bin “sky beam” fests that typically infest our screens.
If you grew up in the 80’s or 90’s you are no doubt familiar with the typical Stallone flick. The man whose career was defined by playing unbeatable action heroes such as Rambo and Rocky, both of which were apparently responsible for singlehandedly dismantling the Soviet Union on screen, is oddly placed in a superhero film. Stallone’s films are typically defined with over-the-top violence and explosions around every corner, and while Samaritan is no different in this regard, it does bring a more grounded narrative to what is typically a genre defined by world-ending climactic battles and reality-altering schemes.
The Samaritan’s story begins with a youth recounting a once “climactic” showdown between Granite City’s greatest hero and that hero’s greatest villain. According to the narrative, these two superpowered enemies fought for the last time many years ago and after the hero, Samaritan, dispatched the aptly named Nemesis, he promptly disappeared for years. The youth, named Sam, is a massive fan of the former hero and has devoted his time to trying to locate the missing supe who he believes is still alive. Sam inevitably cross paths with a lonely garbage collector named Joe, who he believes is much more than he appears to be.
There is a lot going on in the film Samaritan. At its core is the main character Sam, a youth raised by a single mother in a city that is crumbling at its seams. Sam’s story is one we are all too familiar with in modern, urban environments. Sam is surrounded by negative influences from drug dealers, shoplifters and gang members and despite his best efforts to aspire to something more, like his favorite former hero Samaritan, he inevitably finds himself roped into schemes from those who do not have his best interests at heart, just to get by and to prove himself as a man. Sam and his single working mother struggle through possible evictions, gang violence and poverty. He’s a character without a strong male role model in his life and is without a true moral compass to help him navigate the complexities of the moral gray areas he often finds himself in. Without his pillar of strength, Sam is susceptible to the negative influence of other lost souls in the city who have taken the wrong path.
In one of the more compelling scenes of the film, Sam and his mother are fighting eviction when Sam agrees to help out a group of shop lifters by creating a distraction. His maleficence eventually lands him a large enough payday to stave off the landlord for another month. He returns to his apartment to find his mother arguing with the landlord about the eviction. He slides her a $100 bill, which she quickly accepts and hands to the landlord, allowing him to unlock their door. It is only after the two get inside that his mother asks Sam how he came about the money. Sam points out his mother didn’t ask about the moneys origin until after she took it which perfectly encapsulates both the struggle of the two main characters and the struggle of Granite City itself. It’s a poignant punch in the gut for the single mother attempting to instill a sense of right and wrong to her son. The residents, including Sam, are spiraling among a sea of moral ambiguity and are desperately in need of salvation. He has an idea of what is worth fighting for and what it right and wrong is, but lacks the actionable path to follow to make it ring true.
Outside of his day-to-day struggles, Sam is desperate to locate his childhood hero Samaritan. Sam’s struggle in the film is his unending search for a surrogate father, a guiding moral compass and pillar of strength that is missing in his life. He is constantly outnumbered in dangerous situations, bullied, beaten down and alone, giving a raw emotional motivation to his juvenile search for a hero.
In many ways, this search for a father is the struggle of the city itself. The city is often shown as lost, broken and marred in gray. The film’s main villains, led by a man named Cyrus, are made up of orphans and lost youth. Rather than see their coalition as an opportunity to salvation, they have latched onto Cyrus as their cornerstone, consequently susceptible to his machinations and schemes. His motivation is to resurrect the idea of the old villain Nemesis, who he sees as a proto-Marxist “hero of the people,” to lead a revolution across Granite City. Their revolution however, yields nothing by blood, fire and streets of rage in what is clearly a reference to the “Summer of Love” the nation witnessed burn across major metropolitan districts through 2020. Stores are smashed and looted, flaming cars are rammed into buildings and chaos reigns supreme. Without their hero, or father figure, the city descends into a broken and angry mess, easily susceptible to the same negative influence that is threatening to drag Sam down with it. Sam’s struggle to find a moral pillar to lean against is one that is echoed across a city of orphans and discarded, disposable youth in a resounding message of the importance of fortitude in the household. How different could the situation be had Granite City still had their moral backbone in Samaritan to guide them and hold out a helping hand.
It is difficult to analyze the greater theme of the film without revealing the “grand twist” of the film. Should you wish to not have that twist spoiled, skip the segment of the review labeled accordingly.
Despite the world appearing bleak and hopeless in Samaritan, the theme of redemption runs deep throughout the story. The character of Joe, played by Stallone, is the encapsulation of this redemption. He is a man in isolation, disconnected from the world and living a solitary life of repairing old clocks and radios he finds in dumpsters to give them a “second chance at life.” He is a character that knows what is right and wrong, but wishes to stay out of the affairs of the rest of the world. His reluctance to intervene in the darkness swallowing up Granite City comes from his belief that he had previously committed a grievous sin for which he must atone. Whatever his past, Joe is a character with a clear and evident sense of right and wrong. Sam immediately is drawn to Joe after he intervenes and saves him from an assault by several gang affiliated youth. His display of strength leads Sam to believe that he may be the missing Samaritan that he has been searching for his young life.
Despite his desire to remain hidden, Joe never lies to Sam when he denies being the old hero. What he does become instead, is the missing male role model in Sam’s life, befriending the youth and teaching him how to defend himself and survive in an increasingly dangerous city. He becomes a surrogate father to the youth and cements this placement by repairing the youth’s broken watch, which belonged to Sam’s deceased father. Joe sets the pieces back correctly, ensuring it is able to move forward and fulfill its purpose, in an incredibly on-the-nose metaphor.
SPOILERS AHEAD! SKIP NOW IF YOU DONT WISH TO BE SPOILED!
As stated, the theme of redemption is integral to the plot of the film. Though Joe acts with a current sense of right and wrong it is shown that it wasn’t always so. In the prologue of the film, it is stated that Samaritan and Nemesis were brothers who slowly grew apart, eventually becoming mortal enemies. In the true spirit of the missing parents narrative, this came about after the death of their mother and father. The main villain of the story, Cyrus, hopes to reinvigorate the legend of Nemesis by continuing the past plan Nemesis hatched to cast the city into darkness, attack the power grids and let the people eat each other. He even goes so far as to break into the police evidence lockers to steal the weapon of Nemesis and his old mask to complete the resurrection.
If it wasn’t evident from watching the first half of the movie, it is eventually revealed that Joe is not Samaritan, but rather the “evil” brother Nemesis. While this reveal serves little to the surface level of the story other than to provide an entertaining action sequence, the overall plot reveals itself to be a story about redemption because of it. Joe points out that there was never some grand plan to plunge the city into darkness, but rather a simple trick to lure his brother for a final confrontation in a Cane and Able type analogy. Biblical themes run deep through the film, which could be read as a subliminal message to the audience in the importance and wide application of these ancient tales and how they can shape our society. While Sam is initially upset by the revelation that the man he thought was his greatest hero is actually a paragon of evil, Joe explains to Sam that good and evil reside in everyone’s heart and who you are is defined by what you do. It’s a choice to aspire to something better rather than to live as what someone tells you you are. The film ends with Sam conveying to the news that Samaritan is indeed returned to the city. While the audience knows it is not actually the same person who has returned, we can see that the spirit of what Samaritan stood for such as hope, salvation and redemption has indeed returned. You can choose to be a hero, all it takes is that first step to start caring again.
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The film Samaritan is one that is indeed worth a watch, even with the whole family. While it does contain some violence, it does not contain anything that would be obtuse for a teenager in today’s films. It’s characters are grounded in a world we all recognize and it has a good deal of satisfying action and a surprisingly strong biblical string woven throughout. Perhaps it is for this reason that the film is receiving essentially zero advertising or press. The film currently only appears to be circulating by word of mouth, which is a terrible tragedy considering how much more enjoyable it is to watch over the bevy of bloated garbage we are currently surrounded by. As it stands, if one can get past a few scenes of cheesy dialogue and one scene of truly poor de-aging CGI, it is possibly one of the best films to be released this year after The Northman and Top Gun. It leaves you with a strong desire for more, both to explain the lore of these heroic characters and to see more of their adventures, which is always a good thing.
Rating: The Heartland Beat rates this film 4 out of 5 stars. A treat for fans of the superhero genre who believe they have seen it all before.