Return of the Secaucus 7 is a 1980 American independent drama film written and directed by John Sayles and starring Bruce MacDonald, Maggie Renzi, David Strathairn, Adam LeFevre, Maggie Cousineau, Gordon Clapp, and Jean Passanante, and others.

Teachers Mike Donnelly (MacDonald) and Katie Sipriano (Renzi) prepare to host a gathering of their old college activist friends at their rural New Hampshire home.

Irene (Passanante), a speechwriter for a Democratic U.S. senator, arrives with her conservative boyfriend, Chip (Clapp), who did not attend college with the others.

After playing basketball and skinny-dipping with Mike's high school friends, Ron (Strathairn) and Howie (Sayles), the group goes to a bar.

While sitting in lock-up, the group recounts their various arrests during their college years and the formation of their nickname, the "Secaucus 7".

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.

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.

[8] 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.

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.

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.