John Sayles

Writes, Directs, and Edits his films

Works outside of Hollywood and the Indie film community

Diverse Themes

unified by American dilemma:

Tension between personal life and social responsibility or self interest vs. collective interest

“My main interest is making films about people....I’m not interested in making cinematic art.”

Born catholic (like Waters!) he works with stories that have “moral content to them”

Big Issues

Coal miner’s Strike

Baseball Player’s Strike

Disability

Disenfranchised Mexican Americans

Like Cassavetes, Sayles focuses on ordinary people and plays close attention to detail in the mise en scene

Both have an idiosyncratic style

Sayles’ dialogue is didactic at times

Requires very strong performances that can deliver the lines in a natural--“matter-of-fact” way

Films are “less emotionally draining” than those of Cassavetes.

Sayles also uses larger ensemble casts that present a panoramic in depth portrait of a place or event

Attention paid to dramatic structure

Born in Schenectady New York

Studied Psychology at William’s College

embarked on a writing career while working as a day laborer and at a meat packing plant

In the 70’s he wrote scripts for Roger Corman films

Made enough money to make fund his own films

Prominent and respected, but hasn’t gained the fame of Soderbergh or Tarantino

Films are sedate and to some “lack visual flare”

seem like “photographed scripts”

no distinction to his visual style, according to critics cited in the book

This may be true of his films preceding Lone Star, but there is a case to be made for this film in terms of directorial style

his use of mise en scene (actors, location, etc)

His attention to region--specific detail is like taking a road trip

is work of the 90’s has brought about more “technical assurance”

Lone Star, 1996

A border film

Most famous: Touch of Evil, Orson Welles 1958

Lone Star is not “a factual story...but he could find documentation in newspapers for each event depicted”

Lone Star at its core deals with racial strife between Mexican Americans and Anglo Americans on the Texas border

“multilayered epic about intergenerational wars”

When Sam Deeds crosses the border

He speaks to Chucho about a murder of a historic murder of a young Mexican American

Chucho talks about the border and uses a Coca-Cola bottle to draw an imaginary one

Unflattering product placement

pointing out economic differences

Mise en Scene

Casting

Chris Cooper plays the role of Sheriff Deeds

Matthew McConaughey plays his father (not a star at this point) still fits the mold of the Western Hero