MovieChat Forums > Dear John (2010) Discussion > Why Did John Take Savannah Back?

Why Did John Take Savannah Back?

posted 14 years ago by MargaretTyler
23 replies | jump to latest

I would have ditched the b1tch. Yes, she was so kind. "I want to become a special ed. teacher". "I want to build houses for homeless people". Whatever! Sure she is painted as this great humanitarian in the movie, yet she dumps John while he is serving his country? WTF?

Usually for me to even remotely like a movie, I have to at least like one or two characters in a movie. I must state that I really found no redeeming qualities in any of the characters in this movie including John who gave a very stiff and boring performance. The man cannot act to save his life. Not that anyone else in the movie could either. John's father? What was that all about with the obsession with coin collecting? Because he was mildly autistic? Again lame. The man that Savannah grew up with and eventually married? What a total tool he was. He and Savannah were made for each other and him dying in the end was in fact poetic justice IMO.

[–] jporter-6 14 years ago

It seems to me that you would not understand the reason. I'm not cutting your down, but you apparently reason in logic and facts. For you to understand why Tim took her back, you would have to understand with your heart.

[–] nymichael2002 14 years ago

and you are obviously a sucker, lame movie

[–] charmingnancy 14 years ago

I just finished watching the movie and neither the original post and first response make sense. If you had listened, you would have understood why Savannah broke up with John while he was deployed. She broke up with him to marry her friend Tim, who was diagnosed with cancer. Mostly, she married him to take care of his son. John didn't die, Tim died. John took her back in the end after Tim had died because he loved her. She didn't leave John because she didn't love him, and she never loved Tim like she loved John.

[–] jeanniemotherof3 12 years ago

Thank you charmingnancy! someone got it right.

[–] Rpdsf 10 years ago

Marrying Tim so his son would have someone to take care of him after he died was a weak excuse. All Tim had to do was leave everything to his son and appoint her as his legal guardian upon his death. I hope John would have realized that and never got back with her again. What she did to him and how she handled telling him was absolutely awful and inexcusable! She doesn't deserve him and I hope he would just move on and find someone else who wouldn't think of ever treating him so badly.

[–] clickbait 10 years ago

Rpdsf....Its not that easy to just become a legal guardian in US...its all about wich state u live in, and this kid had special needs since he was autistic...heres a link u can read and see for urself if u think its "just to become" a legal guardian.

http://definitions.uslegal.com/g/guardianship/

~If the realistic details fails, the movie fails~

[–] Rpdsf 10 years ago

Okay so it's not "easy" but not impossible. She had plenty of time to get it done. So it's still not an excuse and I stand by my initial comment.

[–] WandererFromYs 9 years ago

Actually it's not that difficult. If the sole guardian of the child, who is dying of cancer wants to give guardianship over to her, the judge is probably going to allow it. If there were a mother, or another family member in the picture that wanted to fight for guardianship, that would draw things out, but they wouldn't simply deny it and have the kid go into foster care when there is a family member or friend of the family that could take him in.

[–] StarrySkyWaltz 14 years ago

He took her back because she was the only person he was ever close to other than his dad and his dad had died. Instead of doing the right thing which would have been to move on with his life and find someone new, he retraced his steps and went back to Savannah.

[–] bjphysics 13 years ago

John took Savannah back because he is an understanding, good, decent, and moral human being. The OP might not understand this based on the limited empathy demonstrated in the post; reading the post carefully I see this could be a case of Asperger syndrome. If the OP does not have medical insurance, perhaps the OP has a close male friend with medical insurance that she could marry and after the 90 day waiting period seek diagnosis and treatment.

[–] superstarlet_04 12 years ago

I totally get what the OP is saying. Savannah obviously loved John more than Tim. She could have helped Tim and his son, without marrying him and crushing John's feelings.

I think a big point in the movie is that Savannah cares for people to her own demise. She wants to help-help-help, yet doesn't want to help the guy in front of her face, who is fighting for his country and also needs love.

It seems like Savannah wants attention for helping people who have "obvious" problems like cancer and autism, because staying with a normal army guy in a real, true-love relationship is just too boring for her and doesn't make her a "humanitarian."

IMO, Savannah's "helping" was totally self-serving because she didn't care who else she hurt in the process. She could have had both - a true-love relationship and helped the sick people outside of her relationship. But marrying the cancer victim made her feel like more of a saint.

If she wanted to help someone who has downtrodden times, then damn, marrying a military guy is the way to go. They suffer more than most people ever will. They spend months and years at a time risking their lives, living in hot deserts, not having the comforts of regular life and seeing so much horrible stuff that will affect them the rest of their lives.

Savannah is definitely the "bad guy" in this story. The other Sparks movies at least have the couple in love and together, before one of them dies. This movie just rubbed me the wrong way. I would rather see one of the characters die than marry someone you don't love while the other person suffers.

[–] cat_fitz 10 years ago

I completely agree with your post. Savannah is the "bad guy." Her compassion is twisted and self-serving. She'll screw over the man that loves her, that she claims to love, to chase outwardly noble pursuits, to ever play the martyr. She's one of those people that defines her self worth by the false image she portrays to people. It's too bad John fell in love with such a phony, selfish person. He will forever be alone and an afterthought with a person like that.

[–] Rpdsf 10 years ago

You describe her character perfectly. She even played the martyr when John came to see her after his dad died. She tried to turn the table on him and make herself out to be the one who suffered by marrying Tim. John definitely deserved someone better than her; someone with true compassion and love for him.

[–] LookinGood 10 years ago

That scene you mentioned mirrors an earlier one: The one at the garden bench at Savannah's family party shortly after 11 September. There you have John begging for understanding and for help.
I wonder how it is that almost noone sees this dichotomy: John leaves Savannah behind to serve another tour with his comrades (who all want to go, so he feels he cannot stay behind), and Savannah leaves John to help Tim.

--
"I only watch box sets. Soya latte anyone?" (GuardianOnline reader CameronYJ)

[–] mariondowning-427-469344 9 years ago

Exactly, but men think women should wait around forever while guys do that kind of stuff. Guys go off and be heroes and expect to be treated as such while women who go to war get the same deal "how dare you leave your family". I think she was a hero too and the angry guys here can complain all they like about my post (it's my opinion). Women always have to wait and appear to be "good girls" no matter what century it is. She helped a mate fight a war too thank you for seeing it.

[–] nitinje 9 years ago

at first i was really impressed by Savannah. Impressed by her simplicity, her devotional ,pious love for John. But when she broke up with John and get engaged to Tim it was like she showed her real colours and prove yet another time that girls cant be trusted. All the love and emotions for John was fake. John was in war and in the middle of it he got this bad news , he broke ! She married Tim for useless reason ... if Tim really wants that his son should be in good hands he obviously can rely on Savannah as she not only knows Alan but she knows that Alan needs good care. Savannah can tell John that when they will get married they can adopt Alan which surely John would do happily. But She didn't !! In the beginning she don't drink but for Tim she started .. what was that ! Poor guy John was betrayed definitely. Here Tim was also selfish.. he loves Savannah and want his son good care so he trapped her in his plot. Clearly Both Tim and Savannah they are the culprits of John suffering.

[–] mark-1589 11 years ago

The only way to answer the OP's question is to consider the main theme of this story: sacrifice. Everyone focuses on the fact that Savannah dumped John, but overlook that he changed his plans with her in order to re-enlist. I'm not criticizing him, but he chose duty to country and sacrifice towards that end over being with the love of his life. I thought it was pretty obvious that she also made such a decision - sacrificing for someone who needed her, which she was able to do because John had gone off to war.

[–] ohoward-1 11 years ago

God damn there are a lot a emasculated betas in this thread.

[–] mariondowning-427-469344 9 years ago

Better than being an A type personality having a heart attack early and taking everything too seriously. John took her back because he understood what you don't that he should have stayed with her too. He gave her up to go and be a hero but that's OK apparently compared with giving him up to be a hero to a boy and his dad.

[–] zuleyha_ceylan 9 years ago

you don't have to be somebody's wife and tuin your and your boyfriend's lives to help them! she could have been there perfectly fine without marrying him,so sick nd stupid,silliest choice ever

stop talking,brain thinking ! hush ...---The Doctor---

[–] zooymtoo 9 years ago

It's amazing that you guys seem to find Savannah a villain simply because she wasn't a saint.
Would it have been better if she'd just messed around on the side and not said anything?
So she couldn't bring herself to keep sacrificing year after year after year from a 2 week affair? Unrealistic if she had...one in a billion would..
And more realistic, if it meant anything at all in the first place, that they might find their way to each other again years later.
Seems more realistic than most of sparks stuff.

No one will ever live up to some of your romantic ideals. Not even yourselves.

So are you guys so busy moralizing over something most of you couldn't live up to yourselves that you didn't notice that the main couple both actually survived the movie?
Isn't this a first for a Nicolas Spark movie?

[–] mariondowning-427-469344 9 years ago

If he was screwing around over there (like my dad did in Vietnam) then he would still be a hero who fought for his country and she should have waited for him. That's how it works with cave men.