Ep. 132 – In Conversation with: John Sayles

The B-Side: A Film Stage Podcast

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we’re honored to chat with iconic director John Sayles, whose essential crime epic Lone Star is now available from The Criterion Collection in both 4K UHD + Blu-ray. Our B-Sides today include Limbo, Amigo, and Go For Sisters. We also discuss Sayles’ parallel careers as a screenwriter and a novelist. He talks about the work he did on the Toshirô Mifune/Scott Glenn actioner The Challenge (director John Frankenheimer asking him to write new draft over a weekend before an impending strike); he discusses what he learned working for Roger Corman early in his career; which genre he’s still itching to direct; his love of the recent Godzilla Minus One; and the slew of scripts that never got made. Other Sayles movies to seek out (really it’s all of them) include: The Secret of Roan Inish, Passion Fish, Eight Men Out, City of Hope, The Brother from Another Planet, Return of the Secaucus 7, and Men with Guns. Other mentions include the 1939 Philippine–American War film The Real Glory, La fine della notte from 1989 (the first Italian film with sync sound, which Sayles acted in!), and his recent novel Jamie MacGillivray. There’s also his wonderful 2020 fracking novel Yellow Earth. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.