Eight Men Out is my favorite Sayles film for many reasons (and one of these days I'll get around to adding more reviews, including one from this terrific flick). It also happens to be one of my personal favorite Strathairn performances. Nice to see that David is on the cover of the new edition, too:
Now we just need a new special edition DVD of Matewan. No 20th anniversary edition last year and no special features on the sole DVD avaliable. Hopefully they'll get around to issuing us Sayles/Strathairn fans a new one, because the film deserves it.
2 comments:
I know a lot of people gravitate toward "Matewan", but I think this is a much better example of Sayles' developing a multi-character panorama around social and moral issues. This is also one film where DS should have garnered an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor. He makes a deeper impression than some of the bigger name actors.
I wouldn't say this is my favorite Sayles film - that would be "Passion Fish" - or the one I think is his best overall effort - that would be "Lone Star" - but this is a big step forward from his previous films in terms of directoral expertise. Also, he didn't edit this film himself, which may have helped a bit.
I'm still waiting on my copy of the new edition (I will never pre-order from Amazon again! LOL) but I agree, Henry, on the Supporting Oscar nod. Would have been well-deserved!
I really can't understand the appeal though with Passion Fish. I know it gets a lot of high-praise as one of Sayles's best works, and I think all the performances are wonderful (Strathairn's scenes are so quietly beautiful), but I didn't think it Oscar-worthy material. Not sure why, but I'll have to watch it again soon and get a review up so we can all "discuss" on that one further.
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