A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is a 2006 American drama film based on a 2001 memoir of the same name by author, director, and musician Dito Montiel, which describes his youth in Astoria, Queens, New York, during the 1980s.
Montiel wrote and directed the film adaptation, which was released in the United States in September 2006 and in Europe in March 2007. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Montiel with Shia LaBeouf as a younger Montiel.
The film's narrative jumps frequently between 2005 and flashbacks from 1986 (filmed largely with shaky camera with short shots) with characters occasionally "breaking the fourth wall," i.e., addressing the viewer.
Contents
Plot
The film switches back and forth between the present and flashbacks of Dito's memories in the summer of 1986.
Present Day (2005):
Dito is a successful writer in Los Angeles. One day, after being urged by his mother Flori and his friend Nerf, Dito visits his childhood home in Astoria, New York because his father has suddenly become very ill. Dito meets Nerf and talks with him in a parked car where they can converse undisturbed, which would not have been possible at Nerf's house. Dito then visits his childhood sweetheart Laurie, who is now a mother. They only talk through an open window; she does not let him in.
Dito finally visits his overprotective father, Monty. Monty used to ignore Dito's feelings, and didn't want Dito to travel. He is angry at his son for leaving and for not coming to visit sooner; he then sends Dito away. Laurie urges Dito to be a man and come to terms with his father, who was heartbroken when his son left. Dito does leave, but returns later to insist that he take his father to the hospital.
1986:
Antonio, an overconfident, volatile boy with an abusive father, kills Puerto Rican gang member Reaper as payback for an attack on young Dito. Viewers are then introduced to Antonio's younger brother, Giuseppe - reckless, destructive, and possibly with an undiagnosed mental illness or cognitive impairment. Giuseppe lies on a subway track; in spite of urgent warnings from Antonio and Nerf that a train was coming, Giuseppe fails to get back on the platform and is killed.
Mike O'Shea, another friend of Dito's, is a Scottish boy who dreamt of becoming a musician. Mike and Dito had planned to take a bus to California. They worked for Frank, a gay drug addict with a dog-walking business. They went to his house to collect wages he was slow in paying. At first, Frank did not listen to them, but then gave them all the money he kept in his refrigerator--more than he owed them--and told them to leave town. Shortly thereafter, Mike is murdered by a Puerto Rican gang member in retaliation for Reaper's murder, after which Dito travels to California alone.
Production
This film was Montiel's directorial debut.
Initially, Montiel refused to see LaBeouf for the part, having only seen him as the "Disney guy." Once he got to audition for the role, he "fucked his office up," putting a "hole through the wall" and went as "crazy" as he could in order to change the image Montiel had of him to land the part.
Characters
Montiel states that all the characters in the film are a combination of at least three people and sometimes six or seven, although some characters are given the names of people from real life. Listed below are some of the main differences between four characters and their real-life counterparts.
Laurie
Montiel said that he made the film because “I wanted to walk down those streets again and fall in love with Laurie again, it would have been nice to have had that moment at the end of the film where Dito met Laurie, reconnecting as adults." The real-life Laurie was white instead of Hispanic and died two years earlier from AIDS.
Antonio
Montiel states that Antonio is a composite of three people. The book mentions a kid named Antonio Ruggeria who was sent to prison for manslaughter, escaped, and was later sent to prison again for things "that are even beyond putting in a movie that people might find redeemable." In the book, a copy of a newspaper article describing Antonio's escape from Rikers Island has the crime he committed blanked out.
Giuseppe
The film shows Giuseppe getting killed on a subway track. The inspiration for the scene was a kid named Billy who was "riding" trains when he was killed. The real Giuseppe Ruggeria is a career criminal who was deported to Milan. Montiel describes the real Giuseppe as being like a cat. "The train would come and two seconds later he would pop up."
Mike
The Scottish character Mike is a composite of a man named Mike O'Shea; a kid named Ray, who used to go to the city with Dito, sniff amyl nitrite and smoke hashish; and Angelo Ruggeria (a younger brother of Antonio) who was later murdered. The real Mike O'Shea is Irish, alive, married, and living in Essex, England.
Reception
The film holds a 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 94 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site’s critics consensus reads, "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is a lively, powerful coming-of-age tale with winning performances and sharp direction from first-timer Dito Montiel." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100, based on 25 reviews.
Awards and nominations
Sundance Film Festival
Gijón International Film Festival
Independent Spirit Awards
Home media
The DVD of the film was released on February 20, 2007 in the United States.