John Sayles on Henry Ford, Detroit and his new historical novel 'Crucible'

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

In the new novel Crucible, director and author John Sayles turns his attention to Henry Ford, Detroit, and automotive labor in the 1920s through World War II. The historical novel focuses less on Ford’s story and more on the cast of characters whose lives were changed by the businessman: Ford workers, labor organizers, young radicals, and many others. Here & Now’s Robin Young recently spoke with Sayles at the West Newton Cinema outside Boston in front of an audience of the author and filmmaker’s fans. They discussed Henry Ford’s top enforcer, cameos by figures like Joe Louis and Diego Rivera in the novel, and how Sayles’ upbringing in Synecdoche, New York has shaped his work.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, this is NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Timbermias. John Sales is the legendary director
0:08.3	behind films like Eight Men Out and the Brother from Another Planet. Now, he's turned his creative
0:13.7	energies to historical fiction in the novel, Crucible. It's the story of Henry Ford and the impact his automotive empire had on the city of
0:23.3	Detroit. Here's Sales talking about it with here and now host Robin Young. Screenwriter, director,
0:30.8	actor, and author John Sales could rest on any of his many laurels.
0:39.8	His 19th. rest on any of his many laurels. Me to me.
0:47.8	His 1979 film Return of the Succas 7 is the story of a reunion of 60s anti-war activists hanging out, playing their old songs, and realizing the gulf between the progressives
0:53.0	and the blue-collar townies.
0:54.9	That film inspired The Big Chill and made for about $40,000.
0:58.8	It launched the American Independent Film Movement.
1:01.6	And John Sales made a film every year after that through the 80s.
1:05.3	Baby, it's you, the brother from another planet.
1:08.1	Then Maitwan, the fictional telling of the real-life bloody confrontation
1:12.1	in Maitwan, West Virginia, between coal miners and cruel company owners who hired black and Italian
1:18.3	workers as scabs. Chris Cooper plays a union organizer trying to convince the white workers
1:23.4	that a black coal miner there holding a gunpoint isn't their enemy.
1:27.4	Do you think this man is your enemy? that a black coal miner there holding a gunpoint isn't their enemy.
1:29.4	Do you think this man is your enemy?
1:32.1	Huh?
1:34.3	This is a worker.
1:37.3	Any union keeps this man out.
1:38.3	Ain't a union.
	...

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