Customer Reviews

Saint of Fort Washington [VHS]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hollywood has a way of glamorizing the worst of life's problems and wrapping everything up in happy endings by a film's end. Not so with SAINT. Having dedicated 10 years of my life volunteering with the homeless on the streets of New York City, I can relate firsthand to the characters depicted by Glover and Dillon. There is no question that this movie is realistic. The emotions behind the words, the feelings behind the actions, all of it speaks to the portion of humanity that all of us are guilty of neglecting as we hurry past them on the busy streets. Stop and look, listen and lend a hand. If you buy or rent one drama this year, make it THE SAINT OF FORT WASHINGTON. And hats off to Matt and Danny for portraying a searing vision of homelessness from the bottom of their hearts and souls.

The film borders on melodramatic at times, but the characters are beautiful and their realness add immeasurably to the impact of this film. Danny Glover is brilliant as the caring, street-wise Vietnam vet who takes care of Matt Dillon's character, a young man burdened with untreated schizophrenia. Both are homeless, through no lack of trying, and both are plagued by illness and a few members of a dumb but dangerous gang leader, Little Leroy, played well by a thoroughly nasty and vulgar Ving Rhames, who terrorizes the men's homeless shelter at Fort Washington.

Matt Dillon (Matt) plays the most sincere, nice guy on the planet. He's not immune to the fact that he's handicapped by his mental illness, but can't overcome it until he meets Danny Glover (Jerry). Together, armed with a little money and so much spirit (not to mention unrivaled positive attitudes), they set out to slowly climb the "economic ladder" - as Jerry calls it - and meet some of the most extraordinary characters. Unneccesary forshadowing gives the movie a constant feeling of sorrow, doom, and hopelessness, while the characters involved maintain an every-hopefull attitude about the future.

Not a happy film, but so well done it's hard not to feel it was money and time well spent. You will be forever changed.

I won't deny that this is a difficult film to watch especially if, like me, you have lived in New York City for any length of time (I was born here). It's the story of a homeless man named Jerry (Danny Glover) who takes under his wing a schizophrenic but basically kind, gentle and loving young man named Matthew (Matt Dillon). Jerry helps Matthew adjust to homelessness amidst a bureaucratic system that sabotages the success of anyone trying to escape it. It isn't fully clear why Matthew's mother has abandoned him - though with Matthew's history of mental illness, you get a good idea (horribly cruel as it seems). Jerry not only calls Matthew his son but also names him Saint Matthew, the Saint of Fort Washington (because of his healing touch to those in pain). I think this is an important film for everyone to see at least once (even with the few holes in the story - like why Matthew's mother's neighbor doesn't call to ask if Matthew could stay in his mother's apartment while she is away or why Matthew and Jerry don't go back to their friends' place to stay after the friends leave - maybe those answers were left on the cutting room floor).

We live in a society that's absorbed with money, looks, extreme plastic surgery and so many other things that don't matter, that many people don't ever see the profound suffering around them each day. Not to mention all of the nameless, faceless people whose bodies are interred in the Potter's Field on Hart Island (near the Bronx). Interestingly, I learned after some research, that the term Potter's Field comes from the Gospel of Saint Matthew (27:3-8). After Judas had betrayed Jesus and hanged himself, the 30 pieces of silver he received could not be placed back into the treasury because it was blood money. Instead the first Potter's field was purchased with the silver. I believe the actual meaning of Potter's Field is "Field of Blood." Pretty powerful, no? Just remember, there are many Matthews out there slipping through the cracks all the time. Having volunteered with the homeless in New York, I can tell you firsthand how awful it is just listening to the stories of mostly good, decent people who, for any number of reasons, fell victim to a system that often fails the very people it is meant to help, including the mentally ill. Imagine having to live in these circumstances - often unspeakably violent and terrifying on a daily basis. When you consider that after a day of work (however difficult it may be), you can go home to your own quiet place (however small it may be), buy yourself a meal on the way (even a sandwich for $4.00), and do something as simple as spending $10.00 on a movie or a book, you are richer than you think. I watch this movie on those days when I am especially ungrateful for all that I have - a good reality check indeed.

Matt Dillon's finest performance.

Why isn't this on DVD?

hopeful honest friendship survival These are all word I relate to the Saint of Fort Washington.

This film inspired me to actually do something about the problem of homelessness. Danny Glover and Matt Dillon star in this wonderfully honest movie that might change your views on homelessness. Dillon gives the best performance I've seen from him. The characters are all very believable. A bit like Of Mice and Men. There are some gently humorous scenes with Matthew, Dillon's character, and Jerry, Glover's character. There are other scenes that can seem foolish on the surface, but touching once you think about it. More films like this should be made. I recommend it to everyone

This little known gem is a gourgeous film in many ways. First of all it's a rewarding buddy movie: the young schizofrenic Matthew (Matt Dillon) becomes homeless and it's obvious that he doesn't know the streets and their uncanny laws. But then he meets the elderly black Jerry (Danny Glover), a big wounded Vietnam veteran who takes Matthew under his fatherly wings. Together they wander the streets and try to get by by washing car windows at intersections. Being together (or rather: not alone) makes everything look a little brighter for Matthew, and in a way, for both of them.

The streets can be tough, but the real threat comes from the shelters: huge purgatory-like halls filledwith a thousand plus beds to accomodate as much homeless people during the cold nights. But it's more like a common prison, with the dangers of being harrased, robbed or killed by thugs lurking at every corner.
Main Bad Guy is Little Leroy (a real creepy Ving Rhames), who takes a special interest in Matthew, vowing that one day the young chap will get it for good.

But big Jerry manages to keep Matthew and himself out of danger for a long time. Meanwhile he and the youngster dream about putting a shop together and earn some real money and get a little apartment for the two. These fantasies keep them alive and kicking. They meet other friends, the Latino Rasario and his pregnant girlfriend and the aging Spits who complains about artritis in his hands. Matthew touches these sick hands and mysteriously the pain vanishes, making him the Saint of the movie title all of a sudden.
The question remains whether Matthew with his healing powers and Jerry with his street experience can survive long enough to get out the danger zone for good; there are hints that they truly can, and yet there are forbodings that terrible things will happen indeed.

The entire movie feels honest in every sense, the way the life of homeless people is displayed: they are realy hardworking people, trying to survive. They are people with lives and loves and plans for the future. They are people we can realy care for.
All is thanks to a wonderful cast with every actor in the right place, giving a top notch performance. Director Tim Hunter, who made the raw-edged but touching adolescent drama "River's edge", never goes for the obvious or the cheap, but instead gives us a warm hearted, powerful drama, with a stunning eye for details, a comic note at the right time, and with an ending that will leave no viewer unmoved.

This isn't just cinema at it's best, but also a testament of truth: these things really happen to real people, and they're sometimes closer to us then we might expect.

This artistic film has much more to say than you ever imagine. It focuses around a poignant and very often unspoken and voluntary ignored issue: the hidden side of the Big Apple.

Julian Glover makes to my mind his best artistic achievement in his career as a homeless man who meets another homeless young who is worse than him Matt Dillon. He believes is taking superb pictures from his empty camera and Glover supports him in his fantasy: his madness land and unhappy bliss.

As the film goes on, an intense friendship will origin sequences of haunting loneliness and moral misery. Somehow that film reminded me to a cult movie: Sporchi, brutti e cattive (Ugly, bad) an Italian film of the middle seventies directed by Ettora Scola. (See my review about that one)

In the other hand the masterful direction and the impressive locations will demand from the viewer a sensitive approach. Valiant film which survived in the Independient Channel and didn't deserve major acclaims, due possibly to such painful argument.

The secure hand of Hunter led this film to an epic resolution inside the limits and possibilities of this homeless human being.

It's more than obvious to recommend you this curious and admirable artwork that simply overpassed the commercial criterions and circuits to get inmersed in a real nightmare in the middle of the Great City of the World.

Although sad, this is a harsh reality of every day life in a big city. Very much a tearjerker and i recommend it to every one i talk to movies about.

This movie was incredibly sad but definitly a different part of Matt Dillon.I think he was excellent in this movie.I hated Ving Rhames after this movie. i give matt dillon two thumbs up!!

I have seen this movie 20 times on an old fuzzy VHS tape and this is one of the only movies I have ever seen that can make me cry. Being that at one time of my life I was homeless on the streets of Washington DC I know how bad it can be. I can only imaging how it is in NYC.

This movie has GREAT acting from Glover and Dillon. Proves that Dillon is more then just a "Pretty" face. To see his great acting in the movie Crash I smile to myself thinking "If you think Crash was good then you have to see The Saint"

Not many movies these days can make you appreciate acting without the special effects and yet still have a compelling story line.

The only one downfall is that they never put it on DVD. I wish that it was on DVD so I could share this gem with all my friends.

This movie got little notice when it was released, but it is an incredible achievement for the filmmaker and the actors. Those who love film should not miss this movie!