John Sayles’ Eight
Men Out, the story of the 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” scandal, is, on the one
hand, an odd outlier compared to the rest of his work, and on the other,
somewhat right in line with his plight of the working man sensibility. I’ve
always been a great admirer of Sayles’ films. I especially enjoy the fact that
he can make films illustrating the challenges of capitalism for laborers
without being preachy or overtly socialist. He’s the more toned down American
version of Ken Loach. In that respect, Eight
Men Out fits right in because his version of the story, which is based on
the book by Eliot Asinof, focuses more on the accused players as put-upon
contracted laborers in thrall to a greedy owner who exploits their talents for
financial gain. But amid his full body of work as writer and director it stands
out as one of only two films he adapted from source material. So while he’s
chosen to focus on the aspects that do appeal to him as a storyteller, the crux
of the film is that it’s a historical sports movie, standing very much apart
from his other work.
