Criterion Collection Announces It October 2019 Slate Of New Film Restorations Destined For DVD And Blu-ray Release • John Sayles' Matewan Tops The List

The Criterion Collection announced its October slate of new film restorations destined for release as DVD and Blu-ray editions this past week.

Topping the list is a new 4K digital restoration of writer/director John Sayles’ 1987 film release of Matewan (restoration supervised by Sayles), which will be available on Oct. 29 as a double-disc DVD edition, as well as a single-disc Blu-ray SKU.

John Sayles is a master storyteller, nominated for Oscars twice for his scripts — Lone Star (1996) and Passion Fish (1992).   His characters are flushed-out two and three levels deep … small, seemingly insignificant roles take on a life of their own, even if the screen time is limited.   This is what makes his films so marvelous.

The backstory on how this film came to be is terrific.   Sayles, as he tells it, hitchhiked all through West Virginia during the summer of 1970, taking in the tales and stories of those who gave him rides and befriended him.   The legend of the Matewan Massacre (locals), or as it is officially known, “The Battle of Matewan,” which took place on May 19, 1920, struck a chord with him.   He spent the next 17 years researching and writing a screenplay for what would come to be Matewan.   17 years!!

In the meantime, he honed his screenwriting craft on such films as director Joe Dante’s Piranha and The Howling, director Lewis Teague’s The Lady in Red and Alligator … and then his own films, Return of the Secaucus Seven, The Brother from Another Planet and Baby, It’s You.  

Matewan also includes several John Sayles collaborators, his college classmate and long-time friend, David Strathairn (Return of the Secaucus Seven, The Brother from Another Planet, Eight Men Out and Limbo, among others), Chris Cooper, whose performance in Sayles’ Lone Star is nothing short of brilliant, and Mary McDonnell (Passion Fish).

Filmed on location in West Virginia, with the mining town of Thurmond doubling for Matewan (which had been destroyed by flooding of the Tug Ford River and was subsequently rebuilt), Sayles recruited locals for roles in the film — 31 of which had speaking parts!!!   It was a seven-week shoot and the result was Matewan.

Despite glowing reviews, the film did not do well at the box office during its theatrical rollout in late August of 1987 (the film had debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in April of that year).   History, however, has elevated Matewan to be among some of the best films from Sayles.

Bonus features include a vintage commentary with Sayles and cinematographer Haskell Wexler (who was nominated for the Oscar for his work here), a new documentary on the making of the film and two newly-prepared video sessions with composer Mason Daring and production designer Nora Chavooshian.

Rounding out the October calendar of film restorations on the way to the home entertainment marketplace are: 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg (a three-disc collection on Oct. 8), which includes Underworld (1927), The Last Command (1928) and The Docks of New York (1928); Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 film release of Haxen (available on Oct. 15, which includes the 1968 re-work titled Witchcraft Through the Ages) and documentary filmmaker Leon Gast’s Oscar-winner for Best Documentary in 1996, When We Were Kings (available on Oct. 22).