GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Majorthebys Charming and brutal

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

dougdoepke Great movie, perhaps the best labor drama since 1954's Salt of the Earth. I wasn't around in 1920, but the gritty "feel" of the times is present, in spades, along with the sheer poverty surrounding the mines. At the same time, we're made to feel the abominable safety conditions prevailing in the black holes. No, this film ain't going to play your local chamber of commerce anytime soon. After all, union organizer Kernehan (Cooper) isn't just an outsider, he's likely also a communist, though the script fudges the issue. The coal company is about to beat back the strikers with Negro and ethnic scabs, until the organizer arrives with a tactical sense of how to foil their plans. So now the company brings in two arrogant thugs to push the miners out of town. And we anticipate a dramatic showdown, but one that's also based on historical fact.I love the way Sayles refuses to prettify the mountain folk. In their plain print dresses and drab denim work clothes, they're the anti-Hollywood. And when chief thug Hickey calls winsome Bridey Mae "mountain trash", I wanted to reach through the screen and throttle him. I also love the moment when colored scab Few Clothes (Jones) enters the union meeting wanting to join up. It's an understandably hostile reception, until Kernahan defuses the hostility by telling the men to recognize a "worker" when they see one. And indeed, the strike won't succeed unless the racial and cultural differences are overcome. I like the way Sayles shows this overcoming in small steps, instead of rubbing our nose in it with a kumbaya moment.It's also apparent that religion plays a big part in how the mountain folk react to organizing efforts. The established preacher's (Sayles) message is to stick with the company and reject union troublemakers. For years, his message has prevailed. However, the kid preacher Danny (Oldham, in a gripping performance) is no longer just an oddity. Now he has seen the struggle, knows the sacrifices, and experienced the brutal company tactics. Thus, his movement toward the union message both helps galvanize the community, as well as reflects their becoming radicalized.I also like the fact that when push comes to shove with the company thugs, the town mayor and sheriff, defend their community. That's based on historical fact, and not what you'd expect when the company, in effect, owns the town (the houses and stores). But the allegiance of the two town officials is ultimately with the people instead of the owners. In fact, it's that growing sense of labor solidarity and community identity that create the force capable of standing up to the combined business interests that extend beyond the little town of Matewan.I guess my only reservation is with the two company thugs. Their arrogance, especially in the revival meeting, is spread on pretty thick. In effect, Sayles has stacked the deck by making them and the side they represent so dislikable. It doesn't reach the level of caricature, but it is manipulation, perhaps in a good cause, but manipulation nevertheless. On the other hand, the mountain folk are fortunately not romanticized or patronized. Instead, they come across as ordinary people finally responding to a bad situation that's only grown worse over time. Then too, Cooper's Kernahan is not romanticized as one might expect if this were a Hollywood treatment. He does intercede at important times, especially with his understanding that violence will only benefit the bosses. And though the unionists win the showdown, unless I missed something, we're not shown that they win the strike as a result.Anyway, in my little book, this is Sayles' biggest triumph. Filming on location was simply indispensable to the movie's gritty period feel. It's hard to believe that one man could be behind such a professional appearing production, especially as someone basically outside the movie-making industry. That, no doubt, accounts for the movie's willingness to take chances. I just wish the movie could be shown in every highschool history class. People need to be reminded why union's came into being, especially with so much anti-worker static being currently spun. Of course, no institution is above criticism, labor unions included. Nonetheless, America's bloody history of winning worker rights needs to be told each generation. Thanks John Sayles for resurrecting this important story.

Michael Neumann Writer director John Sayles turns the pages of history back to West Virginia circa 1920, where overworked and underpaid employees of the Stone Mountain Coal Company attempt to unionize the mines, touching off a violent confrontation with company strikebreakers. The background is perfect for what should have been a tidy little historical drama, but Sayles opts for the romantic approach, with lots of photogenic poverty and soft-focus solidarity. His intentions are honorable, but the film is far too superficial to function as anything more than propaganda: the miners all wear halos, the company gunmen all have forked tails, and the final showdown comes after one too many subplot and campfire sermon. Capable performances and scenic photography aren't enough to compensate for an overplotted, overwritten script, which too often sounds like a grade school primer on early labor organization. The facts demand more than the two-dimensional treatment given here.

Robert J. Maxwell This is "based on a true story" of the shoot out in the coal-mining town of Matewan, West Virginia, in 1920. The townsfolk are more or less in thrall to the Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company pays its workers in company-issued scrip, not cash, which can be redeemed only at company facilities like the store and the workers' housing. The workers themselves, laboring under dismal and dangerous conditions, must pay for everything a la carte, including their work tools.The miners don't care for the arrangement, nor for the "scab" laborers -- blacks and Italian immigrants -- that the company brings in.Enter the union man Chris Cooper, a Christ-like figure preaching brotherhood and non-violence. He has his hands full getting the townsfolk to work together with the alien black and the Guappos who use corn meal to make something called polenta instead of good old-fashioned corn bread. It gets especially difficult when the Stone Mountain Coal Company hires a couple of mean goons -- Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clappe -- to evict troublesome families from company housing, forcing most of them to live in tents. Sheriff David Strathairn is on the side of the workers and forbids any confrontations in the town.I don't want to get into the plot in too much detail. It's a bit complicated and it leads to a more or less accurately depicted, but nevertheless familiar, shoot out between a dozen or more company thugs and the men and women of the town, with casualties on both sides.It's practically an object lesson in Marxist theory. The people of Appalachia aren't like Southerners. They were yeomen farmers. No big cotton plantations. They didn't object to strong liquor. And when they drink, it's not even bourbon. When the despicable traitor to the cause pours himself a drink, it's a clear liquor. And it's not vodka or gin, it's shine. And the mountain folk weren't wedded to slavery either. That's why we have a "West Virginia" as well as a "Virginia." During the Civil War the governors of one or two Southern states had to send troops into the mountains to quell rebellions against the Confederacy. The "hillbillies" didn't necessarily want to remain in the Union. They wanted to be left alone.Their allegiance seldom extended beyond the local community or "Holler", sometimes not farther than the extended family. As a union organizer, this makes Chris Cooper's job of implementing Marxism that much more difficult. The general idea is to persuade people that their misery isn't their own fault, not due to bad luck or laziness, but to their limited conception of power. Power lies not in loyalty to one's family or small community or ethnic group or race. Marx called that "false consciousness." To liberate themselves, exploited laborers must make the transition to "class consciousness" by realizing that "we're all in this together" and have to exercise collective power.The movie dramatizes this conflict pretty well. It's a bit slow at the beginning but the tension grows quickly after we get to know the principles and their situations.Haskel Wexler's photography adds to the appeal, and the production design is splendid. Note the widow hanging up her laundry. The wooden clothes pins are old, worn, and dark. And she's hanging up a patchwork quilt, a signature artifact in the Mountain South. Even the dialect is fairly accurate. The narrator uses the regional "hit" for "it" -- as in "Hit was in 1920 that the massacre happened." You won't hear that extra "h" in Charleston.The movie uses an assortment of symbols too. In the opening scene, we watch two disgruntled miners tamp a stick of dynamite into the wall of a coal mine and wait at a distance as the fuse burns down. (Get it?) The villagers near the beginning are seen playing a slow, not particularly catchy folk tune on guitar and fiddle. Later, one of the imported black men, James Earl Jones, joins in with a bluesy harmonica. By the end an Italian is playing along with them on a mandolin. (They're all playing the same tune now.) And the approaching train bringing the army of company goons emits great billows of ominous black smoke. (Well, I don't have to draw anybody a picture.) Chris Cooper has a sensitive face and thoughtful demeanor. He's the kind of actor who can -- and has -- gone either way, towards goodness or evil. A marvelous performance from Kevin Tighe as the smiling, confident, slimy villain. The guy has a great big, unashamedly Irish face. He's one of those suave heavies, charming when he's not committing murder. If he were a British heavy he might be James Mason. The poorest -- or let's say least convincing performance -- is from Will Oldham as Danny, the boyish nascent preacher. One winces when listening to him. He doesn't have the accent down, and neither do most of the others. Highland speech is really distinct, still. "Bread" becomes "braid", and a "tomato" is a "mater." James Earl Jones always radiates good will and is both comfortable and comforting. We don't get to see much of the Italians.It's propaganda, of course. Sayles' loyalty is never in question. But it' well-done propaganda and possibly a necessary memento of how bad things can get when Mining Companies are left to their own devices, able to make their own rules about the workers' safety and welfare. Not that the "other side" is endorsed without reservation. At one point, some miners are saved by the intrusion of a strange group of armed and ragged hunters called "Foothill People." They don't hold with cars. They call them "machines" and curse them. And they say things like, "The only law 'round here is the law of nature." I hope the writers didn't intend that as an admirable take on the character of justice.

agruebele This was a great movie, and quite fun to watch. At times it was emotional, but accurately portrayed some of the struggles of the early 1900's. Sidhatfield had one of my favorite quotes of all time: "I've met Mr. Felts. I wouldn't pee on him if his heart was on fire." You won't be sorry if you watch this. It is one of the best movies of the 80's and probably more than that. The director did a terrific job, as did the script writer. Enjoy!My review for the teachers of US History courses: The film Matewan exemplifies the dynamics between the corporate capitalist class of super rich company owners, and the lower class of workers. Matewan quite accurately shows all the different types of characters and groups that played in such conflicts during the late 19th century to early 20th. Such conflicts erupted due to the different (actually, the opposite) interests of the corporate capitalists and the lower classes. While the movie is slightly biased in favor of the mistreated strikers (as is natural), it portrays an accurate picture of the events that occurred in Matewan as well as other mining towns in the early 1900's of West Virginia. The movie does a great job at depicting the suffering and courage on the part of the workers, as well as the brutality of the Baldwin-Felts Pinkertons, and the mine owners.