Matewan
 

One of my favorite films which I finally found on sale at a local shop. It's in the great tradition of movies like Miller's Crossing, Days of Heaven, and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Sadly the video on this DVD is very poor in quality with a grainy over-saturated full screen image. The sound is no better in low fidelity noisy mono. The story is so powerful and the movie is so beautifully produced and acted that it overcomes these limitations and it was a thrill to see it again. Matewan deserves a better treatment on DVD. This movie is long overdue for a newly restored release.

There was talk over a year ago that a new edition was going to be released by either Artisan or Warner Bros. but it never surfaced. Sayles even recorded a commentary track. I pretty much avoid all Sayles because of the bad dvd qualities and wait until the price drops below $7. (Still waiting on Silver City and Sunshine State) I assumed it was going to be packaged with other Sayles films because it took so long, but now I'm not so sure what the holdup is.

I'm tired of waiting for a R1 SE of Matewan and have been looking at the R2 disc. This movie is in major need of special treatment. Personally, I think it is one of the best films of the 1980's and along with Lone Star & Men With Guns, John Sayles best work.

There is a Canadian R1 version available on Seville. I was lucky to find a used copy recently at Blockbuster for $6.99. It is 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and the picture quality is excellent.

This is my favorite Sayles film (my second favorite being "Passion Fish"). I have the crummy bare-bones release.

Good to know - there are a few stores here in NYC that often have Canadian product, so I'll have to keep an eye out for it!

Hey Marty...I'm hoping you won't feel like I'm competing but I'm in Manhattan too and I sure would like to score that Seville DVD myself. Would you mind sharing your knowledge of where I might find Canadian issue DVD's here? Kim's Video sometimes carries Canadian titles, and I see them at Entertainment Outlet too. Anywhere else you would recommend? Thanks

Does anyone know of any news regarding this? the extremely shitty old artisan disc has been out of print for some time now and is going for $50+ now - we got releases of all of Sayles stuff in 2003 (Secaucus Seven, Lianna, Brother from Another Planet, etc) yet Matewan remains unreleased. what gives?

The R2 was bare bones but was otherwise okay with an acceptable anamorphic transfer. It just went OOP in the last couple of months. Perhaps this means that a new release is on the way on both sides of the pond.