The Saint of Fort Washington (1993)

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Excellent movie.This film shows that people who lives in the underworld of poverty in big cities.But it does so from a realistic and dramatic view. The characters are well portrayed.The plot is simple, and unfortunately close to reality. One of the virtues of the movie is that it is not overloaded with elements to increase the drama. life is shown as it is.Good direction, The soundtrack score by J.Newton Howard fits perfectly to the film .The acting is also at good level with Danny Glover and Matt Dillon8/10

You'd have to have a heart made out of volcanic lava not to feel some emotions in this tale of an unexpected friendship. Like "Midnight Cowboy" and "A Patch of Blue", this friendship concerns two opposites, each with different problems. Danny Glover is a homeless man whose wife took his two daughters and left him for another man, and because of the failure of his business and a handicap because of the Vietnam War, he has been unable to make a living. Matt Dillon is a schizophrenic man whose SRO (Single Room Only) apartment was razed by the city, and he cannot get public assistance to understand he can't locate the owner to prove his claim so he can get a new apartment. Walking around the city taking pictures in a camera without film, he snaps one of Glover, who confronts him for the alleged insensitivity, but soon learns the truth about him. They become acquaintances, with Glover protecting the vulnerable Dillon at the Ft. Washington Men's Shelter from the lascivious eyes of the evil Ving Rhames. At one point, when it appears as if Rhames is about to rape Dillon, Glover defends him, breaking Rhames' arm, and the two escape from the dangerous shelter. On the streets, Glover teaches Dillon how to make some quick cash by washing the windows of drivers waiting to get on the city's many bridges, with the goal that they will combine their proceeds to get off the street and share a room together. They end up briefly in an abandoned apartment building where a friend of Glover gladly takes them in, sharing everything he has and showing more humanity than most people who are successfully making a living in the Naked City.The cold world of HRA, the New York City Shelter System, and the police who cruelly harass the basically harmless homeless on the streets is explored brutally, but with much tenderness and compassion rising like an angel over these two almost mystical creatures who find a type of love in each other, a brotherhood that not even death can dissolve. There are many moments that really make you think. For me, the strongest moment came when the sweet natured Rick Aviles (the brutal killer of "Ghost") is verbally assaulted on the street by a driver who spouts at him to go out and get a real job. The pain in his eyes goes beyond typical human pride, entering him like a knife into his soul. I can't think of anybody who would not explode in that situation, especially since the loving Aviles is anxiously awaiting the birth of a baby from the woman (Nina Siemaszko) he adores more than life itself. While you can put the blame on the politicians in New York City at the time for allowing such cruelties and human indignities to go unresolved, you also have to admire them for even allowing this movie to be made. That acknowledges the fact that they are aware that a serious problem is afoot, even if they don't go out of their way to do anything because of it.On a personal note, I have spent time in the New York City shelter system, and I can say that 15 years after this movie took place, being out on the street is a better option for some people rather than deal with violent characters (like Rhames, who is outstanding as a modern day Bill Sikes), unsanitary conditions and uncaring employees and security guards. The scene of two security guards rushing to stop Rhames is exactly like what goes on in the system today; Characters like him are not put out or arrested, but left to walk around and exploit the weak, sometimes for the security guard's own amusement and sometimes for shared profit. This is a very important movie that has not diminished its impact with time. Every young person venturing into New York City or any other big metropolis on their own should view it as a forewarning. Like the poor innocent black kid that Dillon steps up for towards the end, the results can be catastrophic. Be prepared for a huge shock at the end that resonates in our world to this day.

You and I can usually put the homeless out of our minds. It is said that if you truly felt the misery of the homeless, you would go mad. I could not watch this movie all the way through at one sitting, but had to take it in increments. You know tragedy will occur, as though the wasted lives of the hundreds of vagabonds, mentally ill and veterans on the street isn't itself a crime.As someone who sometimes serves the homeless at the Arlington Street Church in Boston, I know these people. They act like the software engineers I work with 'so long as they are on their 'meds''. That we are so savage a society that we no longer take upon ourselves the obligation to do good to the helpless, to house them as we did in a more civilized time, that's just one of the many signs of our downfall as a society.No preaching in this movie, however. Danny Glover's and Matt Dillon's eyes tell it all. I think one reason we have so many humanitarian actors is because they have to play the roles of the downtrodden and in doing so, become empathetic with them. Since many writers, musicians, actors were blacklisted or attacked for their heroic stands, they know the hurt of the mob or bullying police themselves.Dillon and Glover went out on the streets and lived among these denizens of the sewers, these reminders that we have regressed to Dickens' time. The complicity of the Shelter police in the beating and murder is something that will make you retch, as the sharks of the night rob the other homeless of their pennies, armed with knives that somehow get through the metal detectors. You have no reason NOT to believe the various anecdotes that emerge, from the retarded couple and their pregnancy to the old man with the arthritic fingers, sharing his soup to the Vietnam vet with shrapnel still in his knees, screaming in pain when his drugs give out. The sharing of the homeless with the others in the same state is something that few of us in the 'burbs will ever do,You keep thinking something beatific will happen as the boy has visions of a happy life in glorious Technicolor, but the drab colors of the mean streets of New York remind you that it's all in his head. YOu will never pass up another street hustler with his roses on Mass Ave., trying for a few bucks to ease whatever horrors brought him to this place in life. YOu will want to open wide your home to every vagrant in the Pine Street Inn.. Yet fear will stop you: fear that some will be as the murderous hustlers of the night in those shelters. You understand why some of those you serve dinner to won't be caught dead in a shelter, for fear they WILL be.The city of New York aided in filming this important movie, which should be shown to every HIstory class, every Sociology class and to every recruit thinking he will return to Glory when his time in Iraq is over. They're already joining the Vietnam vets in homelessness, as this movie shows.The most horrible scene is the movie however, shown so poignantly and understatedly by Dillon, is when he tries to return home after his slum apartment is razed. His mother has moved to Florida, and left the key with a neighbor who refuses to let him in his 'family home' in the Bronx. You have no understanding for how a mother can desert her mentally ill child......the joke is made painfully real. "My folks left while I was out and left no forwarding address." For the first time in my long life, I visit a Potter's Field and am told "There is no funeral." They are buried in a mass grave, each in a wooden box. Even as we are shown the box, the photos left as a memorial blow away, leaving no trace of that human being's individuality, his genius. Having met many intelligent, well-educated homeless whose shell is too brittle to bear the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune', I wonder how we in this country dare call ourselves 'civilized'. Yet I remember the admonishment in my training in Clearwater, when i volunteered to help out at a church's homeless shelter: "Don't ever think you can change them, can make their lives right again. You can only serve them where they are." This movie makes even more clear why the homeless man snapped at me, as I whistled while cleaning up the mats in the morning: "What are you so happy about?" Maybe he knew what I didn't: I was whistling because I wasn't him. Great movie, but for God's sake, don't ignore what you take from it. Dillon and Glover punch up the point: There but for the grace of God go I. No wonder this movie wasn't 'popular'. It points the finger right at you and me, for the injustice we do to these, the helpless.

I first saw this movie on late night cable several years ago and found myself riveted to the point where I decided to tape it and now, 10 years later still find myself unable to record over it. It's just that good!! Matt Dillon and Danny Glover deliver performances subtle but powerful enough to make you forget they are actors. The New York locales add to the feeling of authenticity and makes you wonder if mayors past and present (including "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani) are barking up the wrong tree in attacking squeegie men trying to make a buck rather than concentrating on more important things.Anyhow, back to the film: Ving Rhames appears as a thug our duo just can't seem to escape for as hard as they try to achieve their dreams, they are constantly forced to spend the night in a shelter with him. In seeing this film you also will be unable to shake feelings of frustration we all meet at one time or another at the hands of bureaucracy. Matt Dillon's character can't receive a check because he has no ID, Danny Glover can't mourn at a paupers cemetery because it's against regulations, etc.This film is about trying to maintain hope, beauty, humor, dignity and caring when homeless and if this just sounds like your typical tear-jerker, just remember, as Glover's character points out when condescended by a yuppie: "three missed checks and that guy's living on the streets just like us." It's a powerful message when you begin to see just how hard it is to climb out of the pit once in it. Rent this film, you'll be be glad you did. This is a gem despite Leonard Maltin's half-assed review. This film deserves to be recognized more than it has been for Dillon proves he can act any of our "stars" under the table with just a filmless camera. You may need a hanky though. I can sit through the bloodiest of movies while eating yet this film moved me. I give this movie a 9.5 out of 10. SEE THIS MOVIE!!!