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Saint of Fort Washington
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by Warner Home Video
Sales Rank: 4174
Price: $19.98
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A refutation of then-President George Bush's notion of 1,000 points of light, this film by director Tim Hunter is about what happened when holes in the social safety net created a homeless population of unprecedented size during the Reagan-Bush years. The film focuses on two of the homeless: a sweet but troubled young man (Matt Dillon) and a more rugged, worldly-wise homeless Vietnam veteran (Danny Glover), who befriends him and tries to teach him how to survive on the streets. Dillon's character is schizophrenic, unable to get the medication or attention he needs to treat his problem. Instead, he winds up in a Manhattan men's shelter, a kind of Darwinian house of horrors haunted by streetwise predators (led by a scary Ving Rhames). Though overly sentimentalized at times, the film also serves as an indictment of a system that lets too many people like Dillon's character slip through the cracks. <I>--Marshall Fine</I>
Viewer Reviews
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?
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Saint of Fort Washington
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