Incidentally, Strathairn's regular collaborator, indie filmmaker John Sayles, is one of three credited screenwriters.

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Independent filmmaker and two-time Oscar nominee John Sayles observes that recent Oscars have also lacked star power.

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After a gun battle recreated in the 1987 John Sayles film "Matewan, " the mayor, two miners, a bystander and three agents lay dead.

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