The quality of a film should never be measured by the amount of money it made.
the quality of the film isnt in doubt.
its a bit hard for me to articulate but i think film is at its best when used to educate as well as entertain and i think in this film of a struggle between miners and mine owners in a hollow in west virginia john sayles not only entertains, and not only educates us about this instance in time but does it in a way that also educates us about the nuanced roles of state, the middle class, the clergy and religion.
it educates on race and racism without being preachy, how and why its used and how it can be overcome.
it educates on womens part in thes struggles.
it also educates on the importance of music in working class life and how black and white musicians influenced, copied and adapted each others ideas.
it talks of the futility of armed struggle against an opponent with machine guns and that class solidarity is their greatest weapon.
it does all this with great actors, script, lighting, editing everything. it has some fantastic lines. some fantastic performances, james earl jones especially.
if it had reached a larger audience it would have been perfect. as it was, for whatever reason, it wasnt. something so clearly trying to make big generalisations from a small incident and educate, if people dont watch it has failed in some way in what it was trying to do.
as i say, its almost perfect but there is a way it could be improved on, which is more widespread knowledge of it. so it cant be perfect. just a very very very very good film.