Word: matewan
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...from writing screenplays such as Clan of the Cave Bear, the proceeds from a five-year Mac Arthur "genius" grant and funds from private investors, he has turned out a succession of impressive films. Among them: The Brother from Another Planet (1984), the adventures of a black extraterrestrial, and Matewan (1987), a historical saga about striking West Virginia coal miners in the 1920s. His most ambitious project, Eight Men Out (1988), a retelling of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal, cost just $6 million, or about half what Bruce Willis commands for starring in a movie. "The way that...
...would be good to report that Sayles, who likes to portray groups under pressure (Return of the Secaucus Seven, Matewan), has solved all these issues, but he has not. Based on Eliot Asinof's definitive book of the same name, Eight Men Out lacks either the spacious simplicity of legend or the patient detailing of realism. And Sayles often seems like a man who, trying to stretch a single, gets caught between bases and is desperately trying to evade the rundown...
Director John Sayles turns a 1920 miners' strike into the low- budget epic Matewan. -- Shorts: Dirty Dancing and Mermaids...
...Matewan (rhymes with great one) proves, as Return of the Secaucus 7 and The Brother from Another Planet did earlier, that John Sayles knows how to anchor a strong story -- here, the real-life massacre that led to the West Virginia mine wars -- in a fresh setting. He also knows how to make good-looking movies on the cheap. This period film, with a huge cast, cost only about $4 million, a budget that was met under the supposed financial restrictions of a full union crew. And in the rich umbers of Haskell Wexler's cinematography, Matewan does look great...
This is where Matewan hits pay dirt. As a union Judas, Bob Gunton pours cautious reason into the miners' ears, then sets Joe up for a fall -- a fine, taut, implosive job. And Kevin Tighe plays a company enforcer with a tight smile who has seen all the evil in the world and caused more than his share of it. With his round, ruddy face, Tighe always seems on the verge of derisive laughter or flash-fisted rage; it's enjoyable guessing which fever will surface first. The rest of the movie is less entertaining, a righteous homily without...