The sound of a typewriter can be heard under the menu screen of the DVD release of John Sayles' important independent feature from 1980, The Return of the Secaucus 7. Sayles is a filmmaker whose work has always had a strong literary bent, and on the audio commentary here, he states that a movie "is going to live or die on the [characters] themselves." His debut directorial effort, about the reunion of a group of old friends who were politically active in the '60s, is a dialog-centric film that often has the air of an acting exercise. At its best, though, it's authentic with a wistful nostalgia that has deepened with the passing years. Sayles is interviewed on screen in one supplement, his ideas being contrasted with those of his longtime collaborator, actress/producer Maggie Renzi. Renzi notes her satisfaction with the work done by the film's small crew (seven in all), noting "this is a movie that didn't have a costume designer, that didn't have makeup and hair, that didn't have a production designer." Sayles expands upon this in his commentary, which qualifies as something of a mixed blessing. His explanation of the characters' lifestyles and back-stories find him veering off into professorial bits of socio-political philosophy that could have easily been dispensed with. On the other hand, the information he provides about his methods of working on a low budget ($40,000) make the disc invaluable to aspiring filmmakers. Sayles' anecdotes about his rehearsal procedures, shooting on location and editing dialog are technically fascinating, but his stories about the makeshift measures he came up with to preserve his supply of film stock are the most entertaining. Also interesting are his thoughts on 7 being compared to the much bigger-budgeted The Big Chill (he praises Kasdan's film but is glad his characters "are more hopeful") and the fact that the film's square compositions were a pragmatic move, because he believed it would ultimately wind up being seen on PBS and nowhere else. In the end, his evaluation of 7 as "pretty good ... for people who hadn't done a feature before" is a nice bit of understatement, given the film's extremely positive critical reputation and its importance in making Sayles a prominent figure in the then-fledgling community of "off-Hollywood" filmmakers. Sayles also supplies an commentary track for MGM's simultaneous releases of his Lianna and the terrific urban fantasy The Brother From Another Planet. --Ed Grant