Matewan

Rating:
Summary: If everyone watched this movie, they would understand us.
Review: Depicts the struggles and exploitation of the Appalachian people. I am damned proud to say that these are MY PEOPLE! There are none tougher, more sincere or prouder. I was born and raised in southern West Virginia and no matter where I go, I will always be a Mountaineer.

Rating:
Summary: One of James Earl Jones's best roles.
Review: One of my top-ten favorites. The acting, directing, writing, and photography are excellent. In my opinion, John Sayles's best film. James Earl Jones should have gotten an acadamy award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His best role except for CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY. I can't recommend the movie high enough.

Rating:
Summary: A truly great movie by a great filmmaker
Review: I've watched this movie many, many times because I have frequently showed it to my Advanced Placement U.S. History classes during the post-A.P. Exam period. I never get tired of it. Joe Kenehan, the United Mine Workers organizer who tries to help the coalminers in Matewan, may be my all-time favorite movie character. I'm getting old, I guess (age 61), but I still believe in heroes. Joe Kenehan was a hero. The fact that the movie is based closely on real events makes it all the more fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: Little known factoid!
Review: Didja know that the role of the young preacher is played by Will Oldham, who later went onto to (modest) fame and (little) fortune as the leader of the bands Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Music and Palace Songs? True. Oldham currently records under the name Bonnie Prince Billie. Oh, and the movie was pretty great.

Rating:
Summary: Hits home
Review: I have seen this movie several times and each time I find something new. My great-grandfather was involved in the coal wars. This movie is based in fact, with some creative license: Sid Hatfield was the sheriff and there was a battle and a war. It brings the pages of my history book alive. It reminds me of stories I have been told. When you watch this movie you can relate to what life was like for our families at that time.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully placed, pictured and performed
Review: It seems not widely known that this poignant and proud film was shot in Thurmond, WVa., a once booming and now all-but-abandoned coal town absent from many maps, where main street is indeed a railroad track and where a visit today is a step back in time . . . to that very time . . . a time born of coal mines and railroads I was fortunate to visit and photograph with my wife, who's from Huntington, just last summer. Having walked amid the the water tanks, the coal and sand towers . . . the bank and hotel fronts . . . the homes later seen in an earlier time through the movie made this an extremely absorbing film for me. My wife would probably not agree, as such things about the history of West Virginia, where she is visiting again this week, and depictions of its people, like the Okies in "Grapes of Wrath," seem to strike her with a different, harder kind of edge. To me, Thurmond is as wonderful a setting for "Matewan" as Sayles's movie is a palpable depiction of life for men and families struggling powerlessly -- almost -- for each day. The darkened "streets" of Thurmond today, like the blackened miner's face at the film's end, say it all at a glance. See it.

Rating:
Summary: based on true incident in Matewan, WVa, World Book Encyc.
Review: Have used this movie in course in social work graduate and undergraduate programs, in the human behavior and social environment (groups and communities) sequence. Sayles' Lone Star is equally effective as it includes families'more than Matewan. What's especially appealing about Matewan is that its so plausibly real-you know that this version could very well be what actually happened. Makes for great discussion. In same caterory as Grapes of Wrath and On the Waterfront.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent movie.
Review: I don't give 5 star ratings unless they are deserved, and this is a 5 star movie. It's a shame that movie reviewers like the one from NJ have to let their political agenda invade into and spoil this rating process. This movie is very closely based on ACTUAL events that took place in Mingo county WV. A WV history book will give you the details if your interest is peaked to a point that you want more information.
I'll use the comments to another movie, from the same politically biased reviewer in NJ, to say it best.
" Ever notice that the best films are of true personal stories or real events? People can often 'coauthor' better scripts than even the best screenwriters, just by living interesting lives."
I guess that other real event just happened to fit into his narrow-minded image of correctness and this real event did not.
Enough said.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Mess With Coal Miners!
Review: This film is no joke. It really went down like this back in the 1920s. This was a period in American history which saw powerful corporations stomp the working man into nothing.

Rating:
Summary: Great Historical Depiction
Review: I used this film for a case study on the working class in films and found it to be one of the most authentic films I have ever seen on this topic. The direction, acting and cinamatography are brilliant! Chris Cooper and Bob Gunton give excellent performances. The characters in the film, are lively and vivid. There is just so much in this film, I can't say it all.
if you are into history, sociology of labor and class, film studies/humanities- this film is CRUCIAL.