Return of the Secaucus Seven Reviews

After scripting low-budget horror films such as PIRANHA and BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS for Roger Corman, acclaimed novelist and short story writer John Sayles made an auspicious directorial debut with THE RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN, a more authentic and charming portrait of the same territory explored in the glossier THE BIG CHILL. In the late 1960s seven friends were arrested in Secaucus, New Jersey, on their way to a march on the Pentagon. Ten years after graduating from college, the forgotten "Secaucus Seven" and a few companions come together at the New Hampshire home of Mike (Bruce MacDonald) and Kate (Maggie Renzi, coproducer of LIANNA, THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANT, MATEWAN). Over the course of the few days they spend together, much is revealed about their past and present lives and romances. Shot in 1978 on a miniscule budget (reportedly $40,000) and using inexperienced actors, Sayles succeeds in creating an intelligent and often compelling study of former 1960s political activists coming to grips with their lives. Though that's about all THE RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN offers, it is nevertheless an honest examination of the characters and their relationships. Fans of Sayles's work will note the presence of Gordon Clapp and David Strathairn, both of whom appear in the director's MATEWAN and EIGHT MEN OUT.