''The Saint of Fort Washington'' is a 1993 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by Tim Hunter and starring Matt Dillon and

Danny Glover Danny Glover ( ; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, producer, and political activist. Over his career he has received List of awards and nominations received by Danny Glover, numerous accolades including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian A ...

. Dillon won the award for Best Actor at the 1993 Stockholm Film Festival for his performance. Despite the poor box office returns, ''The Saint of Fort Washington'' received positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances of Dillon and Glover.

Plot

Matthew is a young man with a good heart but suffers from sporadic schizophrenic tendencies. He ends up with nowhere to live after a

slumlord A slumlord (or slum landlord) is a slang term for a landlord, generally an absentee landlord with more than one property, who attempts to maximize profit by minimizing spending on property maintenance, and usually rents to tenants that they can ...

tears down his tenement. Matthew is forced to reside at Fort Washington Armory, a nearby shelter. Bullied by punks, he turns to a homeless military veteran, Jerry, for help on how to survive. Together they form a friendship that changes both of their lives forever.

Cast

as Jerry / The Narrator * Matt Dillon as Matthew * Rick Aviles as Rosario * Nina Siemaszko as Tamsen *

Ving Rhames Irving Rameses Rhames ( ; born May 12, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying IMF Agent Luther Stickell in the Mission: Impossible (film series), ''Mission: Impossible'' film series (1996–2025) and crime boss Marsellus Wal ...

as Leroy "Little Leroy" * Michael Badalucco as Bridge Cop 2#

Release

The film had its world premiere on September 13, 1993 at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

. It received a

limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on November 17, 1993.

Reception

Box office

The movie opened at #22, making $19,409. It made a total American gross of $134,454 in its limited release.

Critical reception

''The Saint of Fort Washington'' holds an 80% "Fresh" rating on

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based on 10 reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the movie 3 out of 4 stars, praising Glover and Dillon’s acting. He wrote, "Glover and Dillon make characters who seem comfortable with each other; it is easier to fight the world together. Both actors resist any temptation to reach for pathos in their roles. The Glover character, angered at being cheated out of a small business, has great fury at the world, but has learned mostly to control it; he needs someone to care for, and comes to love the younger man almost as a son. And Dillon, saddled with sainthood in the film's title, plays against sentimentality most of the time."

Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for '' The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to ...

of the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

'' wrote, "This isn’t a perfect movie, and it may occasionally err on the side of Dickensian sentiment, but I it has so much to say about the world we live in and says it with such grace, wit, and raw feeling that I recommend it without qualification." Janet Maslin of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' was similarly positive, writing "The film's visual backdrop often supplies what its dialogue lacks, as Mr. Hunter -- and the cinematographer Frederick Elmes, creating vivid urban landscapes -- convey a strong sense of the characters' restrictive domain", and concluded the film "works best when it avoids even a hint of the metaphorical and sticks to the plain, hard facts." Critiques of the film noted that the "particulars of playwright Lyle Kessler’s script often seem phony, contrived and far too politely worked out for the harshness of the conditions on display", and that "drugs, alcohol and crime are never mentioned, and filmmakers offer no clues as to how they think society should regard and, in turn, deal with the homeless in any way other than is now the case." Ebert commented, "The film's flaw, I think, is to spend too much time with the melodrama surrounding the bully of the Fort Washington Shelter." Peter Rainer of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' opined the screenplay’s "deification" of its characters was unnecessary and that "the filmmakers are so intent on creating a fable that the more realistic aspects of the story lose some of their bite."

Accolades

At the 1993 Toronto International Film Festival, the film came in 2nd place to winning the People’s Choice Award. Matt Dillon was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards and won the Best Actor Award at the Stockholm Film Festival.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Of Fort Washington 1993 drama films 1993 films 1990s buddy drama films Films about homelessness Films about poverty in the United States Films about schizophrenia Fiction about schizophrenia Films about veterans Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City Films directed by Tim Hunter Films scored by James Newton Howard Warner Bros. films American buddy drama films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language buddy drama films