Watch Return of the Secaucus Seven For Free

Such a frustrating disappointment

Absolutely the worst movie.

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

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

A few weekends ago, I watched Return of the Secaucus Seven again. I first watched it circa 1982, and enjoyed it so much that I brought a different girl to see it a few weeks later. Over the years I rented it on VHS for one girlfriend, and then another, to see. Several years ago I bought the DVD to show my wife, and I probably watch it about once a year. (I do miss that hamburger scene - what a shame!) The film concerns a weekend reunion of a handful of people that knew each other as young adults in the 1960s. Seems that IMDb reviewers can't resist comparing Sayles' small film to The Big Chill, a big budget film about a reunion of people that met in the 1960s. Both groups talk a lot, and share a lot, but they are actually very different films in almost every other way. The RS7 friends are still fairly young, not yet settled in life, not rich or famous, not at all generic types, and not played by familiar actors. I enjoyed Chill, but I have come to think of the characters in RS7 as old friends. I always look forward to seeing them again.

Late night at the IFC. The Return of the Secaucus 7 pioneered the "get together" movement of eighties cinema. This movie should be misplaced or evaporated from any film restoration. I'm afraid this movie would be the only piece of life from a nuclear disaster of mass proportions. Future generations would be lead to believe that past generations had no interest but to socialize about nothing. Imagine this..........lotion, yes Johnson and Johnson hand lotion was never created or thought of. Our hands, of course would be dry and chalky sort of like this dry trip. Was this movie perhaps countering the movements of the sixties or seventies? Perphaps the filmmakers were hoping of a return to simpler times. WASP playing a game of volleyball and discussing how much they've learned from their misfortunes. Ron, the outcast of the bunch works at the local gas station! Let him be! The basketball montage is great. Not to mention, the out of breath voice-over. Nude diving at a eleven. "Oh June I'm home."

Sayles' first film is, as one previously reviewer noted, the prototype independent film: small budget, previously unknown actors, an emphasis upon talk and ideas over action or even an event-oriented plot. The script varies from slow at times to very entertaining and incisive at others, but it always feels real. You don't necessarily feel you know the characters all that well when it's over, but you care about them nonetheless. It's all in all a very worthwhile film, in which you can see the director learning how to handle an ensemble cast, as he has done so effectively in recent years in Lone Star and Sunshine State. If you like this type of film at all, you will find it rewarding and quite worth your time.It is amazing, though, how so many of the reviews attempt to not merely acknowledge the similarities to The Big Chill, but to elevate one film and denigrate the other. They come from very different places in terms of budget, stars and polish, but are both very fine films. In one sense, TBC is deeper in that the characters in that film have varied from their previous ideals (or at least it seems that way), a fact that lends a melancholy beneath the slickness that really isn't there in S7. However, a lot of people reach the age of the characters in S7 (they are all only about 30, younger than the characters in Chill) without yet having to really put things in perspective. The leads in S7 have become teachers, a predictable outcome. One other character has taken a job as an aide to a senator. J.T. is pursuing (or putting off pursuing) a musical career. The fact that this film views the characters before some of the inevitable conflicts in their lives have ripened actually makes it more subtle, and allows for the viewer to wonder where they will be in 5-10 years. Will the leads become Kevin Kline and Glenn Close? Will one of the characters die young and precipitate the life-examining session that occurs in Chill? I think the two films dovetail nicely together. To exalt one at the expense of the other is unnecessary and needlessly cynical.

This movie is wonderful. I never tire of watching it. The dialog rings true and the actors have a feeling of long friendship that makes this movie truly enjoyable. This movie is head and shoulders above most movies made in the last 20 years. I am not saying this movie is the best movie ever made I am ranking it by how much enjoyment I have garnered from it. Since viewing this movie I have sought out every Sayles movie and never been disappointed.