Inspector Hammer!
Senior HTF Member
This film is a touchy subject for me, mainly because my disappointment of it's lack of attention for a DVD release over the years has turned to outright anger.
This and Angus might be two of the most criminally ignored gems never to make it to DVD and for the life of me I don't understand why.
I started a thread in 2005 asking Warner for it on DVD and here it is four years later and still nothing. I've sent emails, added the film to the studio request thread and I just don't know what else I can do to get this on DVD.
I hope this thread gets at least a couple of posts showing me that i'm not the only one on this planet to have seen this fine film.
The Saint of Fort Washington is an important film, it's a sobering film and it will break your heart but it's also well acted, directed and shot.
It stars Danny Glover and Matt Dillon as Jerry and Matthew respectively, two men who have slipped through the cracks of the system and have found themselves on the mean streets of NY. Jerry, an aging Vietnam vet who suffers from chronic pain because of shrapnel in his knee, has been there for some time, having lost everything in his life in an alarmingly short period of time he's learned how to survive.
Matthew is new to this situation, he's a young man suffering from mental illness who's apartment building is abruptly torn down one morning and since he now has no address can no longer receive his government assist checks.
Finding himself suddenly homeless, he seeks shelter for the night at the Fort Washington Armory For Men, which the way it's depicted seems almost as bad or worse than the streets themselves, where he and Jerry meet and strike up a warm friendship as Jerry takes Matthew under his wing and shows him the ropes of living on the streets.
It's this friendship where the film draws it's greatest emotional power, the bond formed by these two men grows as they depend on one another, teach one another and hold onto the hope that they will recover from their situation one day.
The film was directed with great nuance by Tim Hunter who never goes for the melodramatic but rather allows the subject matter to lead everything because the reality in the film needs no melodrama and he knows this. It was filmed on location in NYC in the dead of winter and the locations chosen are chosen well and used to their fullest.
I don't want to spend all night typing suffice it to say I fell in love with this film when I saw it one night on HBO back in '95 and I often feel compelled to share it with others so that they may become aware of it's existance, seek it out and watch it, it needs to be seen IMO. No one in my circle of friends and family has seen it and i'm always telling them to try and find it.
I finally have an okay copy of it on disc, which i'm going to lend out to anyone who asks for it, but only because Encore chose to show it the other day. It'll do for now, but I still want it on a proper DVD release in it's OAR but i've long since given up that it will happen. Warner, for whatever reason, has seen fit to bury the film in their catalog titles and it seems they intend to keep it there forever.
Sad.
This and Angus might be two of the most criminally ignored gems never to make it to DVD and for the life of me I don't understand why.
I started a thread in 2005 asking Warner for it on DVD and here it is four years later and still nothing. I've sent emails, added the film to the studio request thread and I just don't know what else I can do to get this on DVD.
I hope this thread gets at least a couple of posts showing me that i'm not the only one on this planet to have seen this fine film.
The Saint of Fort Washington is an important film, it's a sobering film and it will break your heart but it's also well acted, directed and shot.
It stars Danny Glover and Matt Dillon as Jerry and Matthew respectively, two men who have slipped through the cracks of the system and have found themselves on the mean streets of NY. Jerry, an aging Vietnam vet who suffers from chronic pain because of shrapnel in his knee, has been there for some time, having lost everything in his life in an alarmingly short period of time he's learned how to survive.
Matthew is new to this situation, he's a young man suffering from mental illness who's apartment building is abruptly torn down one morning and since he now has no address can no longer receive his government assist checks.
Finding himself suddenly homeless, he seeks shelter for the night at the Fort Washington Armory For Men, which the way it's depicted seems almost as bad or worse than the streets themselves, where he and Jerry meet and strike up a warm friendship as Jerry takes Matthew under his wing and shows him the ropes of living on the streets.
It's this friendship where the film draws it's greatest emotional power, the bond formed by these two men grows as they depend on one another, teach one another and hold onto the hope that they will recover from their situation one day.
The film was directed with great nuance by Tim Hunter who never goes for the melodramatic but rather allows the subject matter to lead everything because the reality in the film needs no melodrama and he knows this. It was filmed on location in NYC in the dead of winter and the locations chosen are chosen well and used to their fullest.
I don't want to spend all night typing suffice it to say I fell in love with this film when I saw it one night on HBO back in '95 and I often feel compelled to share it with others so that they may become aware of it's existance, seek it out and watch it, it needs to be seen IMO. No one in my circle of friends and family has seen it and i'm always telling them to try and find it.
I finally have an okay copy of it on disc, which i'm going to lend out to anyone who asks for it, but only because Encore chose to show it the other day. It'll do for now, but I still want it on a proper DVD release in it's OAR but i've long since given up that it will happen. Warner, for whatever reason, has seen fit to bury the film in their catalog titles and it seems they intend to keep it there forever.
Sad.
