Kong's Great Director Series - John Sayles

Inspired by the thread about the world's top 40 working directors Kong has decide to make a little series of thread about filmmakers that Kong thinks are pretty great. Feel free to discuss the director, his or her films, or ask for recomendations if you haven't seen much or any of their work.

First up.... John Sayles

John Sayles is independent icon having directed only one film under studio control (Baby, It's You). His films are socially conscious works ingrained with a care, wit, and signature style matched by very few American filmmakers. Sayles began as a writer of short stories and novels before moving into the film industry by writing for B-horror filmmaker legend Roger Corman. Eventually Sayles began directing his own features which he always writes and edits (except for Baby, It's You), and often acts in. Unlike so many filmmakers Sayles has not shown a decline in the quality of his work; in fact, Kong considers him to be one of the most consistently good filmmakers around, and Kong has yet to see a film of his that he didn't like.

Films directed by John Sayles (titles in red are the ones that Kong has seen):
Casa de Los Babys
Sunshine State
Limbo
Men With Guns
Lone Star
The Secret of Roan Inish
Passion Fish
City of Hope
Eight Men Out
Matewan
The Brother From Another Planet
Baby, It's You
Lianna
Return of the Secaucus Seven

One of Sayles strongest points is his ability to draw realistic characters with individual personalities. It's a tough job to write a film like City of Hope where there are so many different characters and stories going on at once. Not only must all the characters and plotlines be unique and memorable, but they have to all work together to form a whole picture that wouldn't be complete if any of those plots of characters were to be taken out.

So, what do you think of John Sayles?

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Kong's Reviews:
Stuck On You
Bad Santa

I have only seen one movie of his that he directed, and that is Eight Men Out. I've seen it four or five times and have always liked it a lot. Most of his other movies, I must confess, I've never heard of. I've seen him often acting in movies, and have seen a number that he has written as well. Other than that, I have nothing to say.

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"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

If you like Eight Men Out then you are almost sure to like quite a few of the other films he's directed. They shouldn't be too hard find. In fact, a number of them have just been released on DVD (Return of the Secaucus Seven, Lianna, Men With Guns, The Brother From Another Planet [new edition]). Kong believes that the only two of his films not on DVD are City of Hope and Baby, It's You.

If you're interested in seeing more of his stuff Kong would recommend checking out Matewan. It stars Chris Cooper in one of his first leading roles and is about a small West Virginia coal mining community's struggle to form a labor union (based on real events).

From there Lone Star might be a good place to go next.

Great thread idea. Sayles has long been one of my very favorite directors, ever since some of my friends dragged me along to Limbo when it came out in 1999. Since then I've seen 'The Secret of Roan Inish', 'Sunshine State', 'Men With Guns', 'Lone Star', 'City of Hope', 'Eight Men Out', and 'Matewan'. Each one of his movies that i've seen has impressed me plenty, but my personal favorites have been Men With Guns, Limbo, Lone Star, and Sunshine State.

I think Sunshine State is the real showcase of his uncompromising, surprisingly conservative style of filming, incredibly dense with character and dialogue, as much in his settings and in between the explicit areas of talking; the amount of speaking roles in this film and the weight and depth each one has to encapsulate [as Kong was saying about 'City of Hope'] is the kind of thing that separates Sayles as a film-maker. I've never seen him go in for "cheap" or exploitative thrills or spills.

Another thing that impresses me about Sayles, a factor which seems to be often overlooked is that he tends to write his own stories, rather than chose other works to adapt, drawing on his own life experience and from a huge variety of sources from alaskan commercial fishing to the blacksox scandle.

I've been wanting to see 'Casa de Los Babys'. Does anyone know how widespread it's theatrical run is? Any release info you could direct me to would be very generous.

I think I have only seen three of Sayles' films: City of Hope, Lone Star and Men with Guns (not counting the brilliant Springsteen music videos). I like him a lot, especially for him wanting to comment on society and the world around him. Since I haven't seen that much of his production I don't think I am the one to write a complete biography or something about the man.

What I like about the films I've seen though is the political agenda and the social criticism. I like the way that he actively takes sides with "the little man" and that the characters in his films are realistic and "people like you and I". The realism is also kind of his problem. I sometimes get the feeling that the films are "filmed scripts" and maybe he would have been even more successful as an author. His writing skills are definately his greatest access; he is a storyteller. At the same time it is very refreshing to see films without the hysteric editing à la MTV or the gloss that Hollywood likes so much, and to see films that really focus on the story and the characters and that want to deliver a message, and that actually have a message to deliver in the first place.

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

You know, he is an author. He's written novels, and various other types of books, and still continues to do so.

Kong isn't sure what you mean by "realism is also kind of his problem..." Are you saying that his films aren't realistic, or are you saying that their realism detracts from the marketability? Or just something else entirely?


All very true. All of his films (that Kong's seen) seem to, in some way, ask questions about our communities. What makes a community? What can crush its spirit? What can bring it back to its feet? Etc. Sunshine State and City of Hope are great examples of this because the communities they revolve around are the main characters. His other stuff like Eight Men Out, The Secret of Roan Inish etc., are equally about community but explored in different ways.


As for Casa de Los Babys, it's been released in a very limited number of theaters. It reached its peak in mid-October at 52 U.S. theaters, and is currently playing in just 13. Kong liked the film quite a lot, but if Kong were to list his films from favorite to least favorite it would rank fairly low.

I didn't know that even if it doesn't come as a surprise. Good for him, I bet he is really good at it.

I guess what I am saying is that his films are a bit like the written word showed in images, instead of telling the story with images. I don't know if you know what I mean. It's hard to explain. To illustrate what I mean, I think he is the total opposite to a director like Terrence Malick who is a very visual director, in my opinon. I am just curious why Sayles choose the medium of film - and even more so now when you've told me that he actually is an author. However, I am not saying we would be better off without him and his films.

When I said that it was his problem I didn't mean that his films aren't realistic. I meant it more like I sometimes wonder why he is a director and not an author, or perhaps a stage director. But apparantly he is an author (don't know about the stage/theater part though...) and the films I've seen by him are good too. Guess I just wanted to balance the praising of the man on here...

I've only seen Lone Star, and I loved it. It was such a richly layered film...It was part mystery, part race-relations problem, part western, part Romance...etc., not to mention great characters and script. The transitions were great too. I just loved this movie...

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"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" - Howard Beale

Kong totally understands what you're saying, and cannot give any reason as to why he would chose to tell so many of his stories as films rather than novels or theater. Kong can only say that he's elated that Sayles has chosen movies as one of his creative outlets; he's one of the few excellent currently working Western directors that is reserved in his directing manner.

There is a book, "Sayles on Sayles", which might shed some light on this matter. Which Kong plans on ordering soon. Kong'll let you know if the topic is broached within its pages.



Lone Star is defintely a top-notch Sayles effort. See another and come back to let us know what you think!

Yeah, that would be interesting.

Sayles on Sayles is good, but I also recommend John Sayles Interviews, edited by Diane Carson (ISBN#1578061385). Both have tons of good information.


And in case any of you R1 DVD fans have missed it, a few of Sayles' earliest films have been released in the last couple months as special edition DVDs: Return of the Secaucus Seven, Lianna and Brother from Another Planet. All have Sayles audio commentary tracks and featurettes. And Men with Guns has finally been released too (though it is featureless).

That leaves just Baby It's You and City of Hope as unreleased in R1. And Casa de los Babys, obviously.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Do you know, Holden, if the interviews collection includes the Sayles interview from the preface of Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies? That was a decent book but the long and insightful Sayles interview in the begining was easilly the highlight.