About this product

Product Information

A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS is an unflinching coming-of-age tale based on writer/director Dito MontielÆs experiences of growing up in Queens, New York. In the film, a man pays an emotional visit to his old neighbourhood, and recalls ghetto life during the sweltering summer of 1986.

Product Identifiers

ProducerRene Bastian, Lucy Cooper

EAN5060018488943

eBay Product ID (ePID)59556277

Product Key Features

ActorSandra Hernandez, Shia Labeouf, Chazz Palminteri, Channing Tatum, Dianne Wiest, Martin Compston, Eric Roberts, Rosario Dawson, Robert Downey

Film/TV TitleA Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

DirectorDito Montiel

FormatDVD

Release Year2007

LanguageEnglish

GenreDrama, General

Run Time100 Mins

Additional Product Features

Certificate15

Number of Discs1

Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States of America

ComposerJonathan Elias

ReviewsSight And Sound - It's Montiel's skill with the actors, particularly those he's recruited to play Dito's childhood buddies...that remains the film's overriding strength, Total Film - Downey Jr and Rosario Dawson are reliably on the money, New York Times - Though the picture is wrenching, at times devastating, it leaves you with that buoyant feeling of having encountered a raw, authentic work of art

Additional InformationWriter Dito MontielÆs highly cinematic memoir of his childhood in Queens, New York, makes the leap to the big screen, with the author himself getting behind the camera to helm this powerful, and at times gut-wrenching, adaptation. The film flits back and forth between the adult MontielÆs (Robert Downey Jr.) emotional return to the neighbourhood after a 15-year gap, and the childhood antics that led to his younger self (played by Shia LeBouf) fleeing to Los Angeles in 1986. DowneyÆs older brother Montiel is an introspective, quietly successful author who comes home after he is informed of his fatherÆs (Chazz Palminteri) life-threatening illness. LeBoufÆs teenage Montiel is a young tearaway who runs into constant trouble with his gang of friends, falls in love with local looker Laurie (Rosario Dawson), and dreams of an escape from the city with his Scottish friend, Mike (Martin Compston). The balance of the film tilts in favour of the kids, with most of the action taking place in 1986. These scenes acutely capture the punishing heat of the New York City summer, with the teenage gang soaked in sweat and dirt as they trample through their crumbling Queens ghetto. Channing Tatum gives a terrifying performance as MontielÆs violent young friend, Antonio, and Palminteri is equally intimidating, filling the screen with palpable rage as he barks at the older and younger versions of his son. The skittish narrative makes frequent lurches through the decades, and also sees characters frequently breaking the fourth wall by directly addressing the audience, recalling the work of writer-director team Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro Gonzßlez I±ßrritu (21 GRAMS, AMORES PERROS). Montiel couples this with the gritty stylistic verve of classic New York movies such as MEAN STREETS and SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, ultimately transforming SAINTS into the perfect distillation of two separate eras in an ever-evolving city.

ScreenwriterDito Montiel

Sound sourceDolby Digital

Movie/TV TitleA Guide To Recognizing Your Saints

EditorJane Pushinsky, Christopher Tellefsen

Director of PhotographyEric Gautier

Consumer AdviceContains strong language, sex references and soft drug use