Return of the Secaucus 7


Return of the Secaucus 7 is a 1980 drama film written and directed by John Sayles and starring Bruce MacDonald, Maggie Renzi, Adam LeFevre, Maggie Cousineau, Gordon Clapp, Jean Passanante, and others. The film tells the story of seven friends who spend a weekend together in New Hampshire. The weekend is marred by the break-up of a relationship between two of the friends. This causes a ripple effect among the group and brings up old desires and problems.
The picture was thought to have inspired The Big Chill, which is a more widely known film with a similar storyline. However, writer/director Lawrence Kasdan has denied having seen Return of the Secaucus 7 before working on The Big Chill. In 1997, the film was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for its historic merits.

Plot

Teachers Mike Donnelly and Katie Sipriano host a gathering at their New Hampshire home of their old activist friends from college. The group begins to arrive slowly, with wannabe folk singer J.T. hitchhiking his way up, while Frances, his old girlfriend now in medical school, drives separately. Irene, a speechwriter for a prominent Democratic senator, arrives with her boyfriend Chip, the most conservative member of the group and only one who did not attend college with the others. The group is shocked to hear that longtime couple Maura and Jeff broke up, leading the group to feel somewhat uneasy the first night. Maura and J.T. express mutual interest in each other now that Maura is single, and the two have sex that night while Frances is nearby. The group goes to see a play that their old friend Lacey is in, and Katie begins to heckle Lacey, much to Mike's annoyance.
Jeff's arrival and apparent lack of knowing that Maura had ended their relationship puts a greater strain on the group's events, especially when J.T. reveals to Jeff that he and Maura had sex because he believed her to be single. Jeff acknowledges being angry at J.T., but continues their friendship. After playing basketball and skinny-dipping with Mike's high school friends Ron and Howie, the group goes to a bar where Jeff and Maura get into a loud argument and Ron begins to make passes at Frances, who is upset that J.T. and Maura were intimate. Ron and Francis leave for a local hotel, while Maura leaves alone and the rest of the group drives separately. Out on the road, the group stumbles across a dead deer and are arrested by a hidden police officer on suspicion of illegal game hunting. While sitting in lock-up, the group recounts their various arrests during their college years, and recount the formation of their nickname, the "Secaucus 7". A local drunk confesses to hitting the deer, and the group is released. The following day, the group leaves one-by-one, and J.T. insists on hitchhiking to Boston, ignoring pleas from Maura to at least give him money for a bus ticket. Jeff is left alone, and angrily begins splitting wood elsewhere on Mike's property. The film ends with Mike and Katie finding a farewell note from Jeff that reads, simply, "I'm sorry. --Jeff".

Cast

Critical response

Emanuel Levy liked the film and wrote, "The movie became influential, launching a cycle of "reunion" films, which included The Big Chill and the TV series Thirtysomething. As a portrait of disenchantment, Return was more authentic and honest than Lawrence Kasdan's star-studded Big Chill...A rueful movie about unexceptional lives that have prematurely grown stale, Secaucus is a bit commonplace, lacking genuine drama. But Sayles uses effectively a discursive, episodic format; he constructs strong scenes with resonant dialogue. The characters are complex and individually distinguished by speech, gesture, and manner."
Critic Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat wrote, "Here's a nice little movie about the baby boom generation...Novelist John Sayles wrote, directed, and edited this movie. It is a labor of love. We watch these laidback individuals share their stories and reminisce about the past...But these baby boomers can't handle tension; the rift between Jeff and Maura sends tremors through the weekend. And although they put up a front of having a good time, one senses that things haven't turned out well for them — either in terms of meaningful relationships or in terms of personal fulfillment. Return of the Secaucus Seven leaves one with a rueful feeling about this generation."
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on eleven reviews.
Film critic Aljean Harmetz of The New York Times wrote in her review: "For a movie that cost $60,000, The Return of the Secaucus Seven is traveling in heady company. Most $60,000 movies play at two film festivals, then end up on a 16-millimeter projector in their director's living room. The Return of the Secaucus Seven, about seven antiwar activists who spend a weekend together 10 years later, was the surprise hit of last spring's Los Angeles Filmex festival. The movie was also selected as one of the 10 best films of 1980 by The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times and Time magazine, and last week it was nominated by the Writers Guild as best comedy written directly for the screen. When it opened an unsuccessful commercial run in New York last September, Vincent Canby, although expressing some reservations, praised the film as sweet and engaging and an honest, fully realized movie. Today it will try again, opening at the Quad in Greenwich Village this time."

Release

Return of the Secaucus 7 was released in United States theatres on September 5, 1980. The film was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on September 16, 2003.

Accolades

Wins
Nominations
Other distinctions