The Films of John Sayles

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John Sayles has been the most consistently decent film maker I have witnessed, as far as a director's body of work goes. I've never seen a terrible, mediocre, or half assed John Sayles production. His themes are deep rooted, often political, and usually on the side of drama, but his offerings also have a lot of subtle humor and heart. Sayles' pictures will take a very small portion of a much larger story and focus in on topics that may seem labored with their general premise, but soon explode into a bouquet of rich characters and writing once the viewer has decided to engage a small level of devotion to Sayles' own commitment to the film.

This thread will attempt to discuss, in some depth, the films of John Sayles.



I just saw him in person a month ago at a screening of Matewan at the American Film Institute theatre outside of Washington, D.C.

He and his films are wonderful. My friend recently called him "The Woody Guthrie of Filmmaking", and given his fierce independence, Humanism, and his choice of subject matter I think that is apt. I'd say Lone Star, Matewan, Eight Men Out, Men with Guns, Limbo, Passion Fish, The Secret of Roan Inish, and Honeydripper are my favorites of the bunch, but I like everything he has made.
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/City-Of-Hope...UAAOSwSzRZUI6~

I'd definitely try and work the "Best Offer" option. Seems this is super rare..?..

And you'll need an all-region player
You can also watch all regions on a PC with a disk drive. Let's you toggle between the different regions, but I think you can only do it for a limited number of times. As you say, a multi-region player is best.
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You can also watch all regions on a PC with a disk drive. Let's you toggle between the different regions, but I think you can only do it for a limited number of times. As you say, a multi-region player is best.
That's right, I forgot about that. Yeah, the limited toggle is a bit of a downer so all region if you plan on importing. I know I do often.



That's right, I forgot about that. Yeah, the limited toggle is a bit of a downer so all region if you plan on importing. I know I do often.
Yeah, I have known people who didn't realize that & permanently got stuck on the wrong region. But it's good in a pinch.



Yeah, I have known people who didn't realize that & permanently got stuck on the wrong region. But it's good in a pinch.
I used my code up for The Hard Way with James Woods and Michael J. Fox.

By the way, Stirchley, I'm still waiting on that mini discussion about Tootsie and Connery.



I used my code up for The Hard Way with James Woods and Michael J. Fox.

By the way, Stirchley, I'm still waiting on that mini discussion about Tootsie and Connery.
Ha. I've been here all day & am about to log off now. Nice try kid.



I need to hammer into more John Sayles but it's tough to really immerse myself because most of his films aren't on the HD format. Streaming may be in order, such as amazon or youtube purchases. Lots of catching up to do. I invite anyone who's seen Sayles' work to leave their thoughts about it here.



RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010
I should search this or I'd have to find it on an old thumb drive buried someplace to find my review of Lonestar from darn near 20 years ago. I saw The Secret of Roan Inish was on the Criterion Channel and started to watch it. For some reason it just wasn't vibing, and then when I read the description and knew I recognized Sayles' name, I remembered that I really disliked Lonestar from back in the day.

I will finish The Secret of Roan Inish later, but I just couldn't get through it as the script writing and director flourishes were just screaming at me and it's just paint by numbers film school stuff it feels like. Some examples from this movie that just turned me off from it:

1. The structure of going back and forth with the story telling and listening to the old man tell the story - he seems less Irish and more like an American basing their performance on the Lucky Charms leprechaun OR an Irish actor told to Americanize their Irishness. Either way, just meehh.

2. The director using slow motion and the echoey yelling voice thing to tell the audience "this is a flashback" - the baby in the basket thing. Ugh.

3. The POV seagul attack ripping on Hitchcock, which I always thought putting the camera up above the actors and then swooping in as the actors are running away looking up with their hands up and then cutting to a seagul, was just awful.

4. The little girl as surrogate audience member... we're watching her, watch a story be told in flashback... it violates the show don't tell rule, especially since the voice over continues well into the flashback. Horrible example of narration. The Princess Bride did this spectacularly when they cut the narration of Peter Falk, once we got several minutes into the story within the story.

5. Lots of random pictures of seals and seaguls that don't push narrative, but... I imagine are in there for capturing the sense of place, but they're soo close up that we lose any mise en' scene and they could have been photographed in a zoo and then edited into the film.

Just lots and lots and lots of stuff I don't like, and I was reminded of how cringy I thought Lonestar was when I watched it years ago. Just a director whose style has a spotlight on itself and wears itself on the sleeve, that all I'm seeing is the blueprint of the camera, script, and editing choices that seem like they were made by an "A" film student, but doesn't necessarily translate at all on screen for me.
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