Matewan

Rating:
Summary: Word to the wise: Canadian widescreen available
Review: Just an announcement for Sayles fans and fans of this film: a very good widescreen dvd of this film does exist, but it's only being produced in Canada. Its sound is supposedly much better than anything else available, and the widescreen transfer is totally decent. You can read a review of this dvd at dvd verdict.

Given what we learned about the peacefulness of our neighbor to the north in Bowling For Columbine, it's ironic that this most bloody-minded of Sayles films should be released there and not here. No other film I can think of more clearly explains the tragic connections between violence and class politics in American history. Lefty types such as myself have always loved this film, but I know a good many conservatives who do as well. The story of the little guy fighting for his very survival against the bully is always a compelling one, never more so than here. And for those who think the bad guys in this film are TOO evil--I have relatives from coal country and they assure me that if anything, the movie could have gone even further. More than in any of his other films of the 1980s, Sayles is just so brutally honest here about the necessities and the strange accidents that can lead us toward a better future, though with much to suffer in the meantime. A dead-solid American classic.

Supposedly Sayles has recorded commentary for an American release of a widescreen dvd, but I can find no evidence of its being produced any time soon.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Matewan is a wonderful, depressing, uplifting, sad, and beautiful movie. If you want to understand why labor unions are important, why even today workers are willing to go to any lengths to organize and why companies will do anything to keep them from succeeding, this film will explain it to you. John Sayles shows the interplay among social forces -- class, race, gender, ethnicity -- and the ways that that interplay can strengthen us, or kill us.

The fact is that a lot of things haven't changed since the events dramatized in this film. The things that have changed have done so because unionized workers, and other "subversive" types, have worked and fought and struggled and died to make the change while employers and other powerful parties have battled unceasingly on the side of injustice and inequality. Matewan is a tribute to those who fought on the right side and a condemnation of those who opposed them.

Rating:
Summary: Actual Life in WV
Review: Matewan is one of my favorite movies. I grew up in WV so I can closely identify with the characters and the dialog/accents were easy for me to understand, which may be difficult for others. John Sayles used some artistic license to change the story a little for the movie, but the Matewan Massacre really happened. I believe the character of Joe Keenahan (Kenihan?) is based on Frank Keeney, UMWA District 17 president in 1917. The Baldwin-Felts guards were real. The gunfight at Matewan led to Mingo County being known as "bloody Mingo" to this day.

Life in the coal towns is portrayed realistically and the film color is a marvel. The guards really did throw people out of their homes. Around 1912 there is a documented story that during the Paint Creek - Cabin Creek strikes, one miner's wife, in labor, was thrown out of her house. She pleaded to be allowed to first have her child, but the guards threated to shoot her if she didn't leave the house. She gave birth a couple of hours later in a UMWA tent. So remember when you watch this film that other indignities and unspeakable acts occurred in these mine fields - Sayles gives you a good taste of the unfortunate circumstances.

Good reading for those interested in learning more after seeing Matewan might be David Alan Corbin's "Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields." Matewan is discussed several times in his book. (I have no affliation). You will learn more about how every aspect of a miner's life was controlled by the company - for instance, lessons taught at the company-operated school were designed to educate the children in mining methods and hazards.
Matewan touches upon these issues but of course not everything can be shown in one movie.

I'm glad this movie was produced to educate others about the miner's plight. It's an excellent addition to anyone's collection. Too bad it was never publicized enough to make it more mainstream.

Rating:
Summary: Matewan
Review: My disappoint with this video is as follows: I bought the tape to watch the movie. The first half hour of the tape started off with advertisements for other movies. I bought the tape so I could watch a movie without advertisements. That turned me off from enjoying the movie when it actually started. I didn't pay money for ads! The movie was good but leading up to the movie takes away from the movie being enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful movie-very realistic
Review: My mother grew up near the real-life town of Matewan. Her father and his brothers were instrumental in starting the union in that area. When the movie first came out, I spoke with an uncle who was actually a child when the battle took place and he related the stories to me even without seeing the movie. The only real character in the movie was the constable, Sid Hatfield. The others, according to an interview with Mr. Sayles, were composites of various characters. My uncle (once again without having seen the movie) told me of the incident in which my grandfather was beaten and left for dead on top of a coal car and was not found until he reached Portsmouth, Ohio. I was very much impressed by the location used. Until the recent flood prevention work in Matewan, you could hardly tell the difference between the movie town and the real one. I was also quite taken with the performance of James Earl Jones. Even a decade after seeing it, I can remember many of his lines and the striking way he portrayed Few Clothes. I don't think I could give this movie a higher rating.

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: Hidden History
Review: Quite simply, Matewan is the best labor film since 1954's Salt of the Earth. There are flaws. Sayles crowds too much into his screenplay, as though no aspect of labor's long struggle should be left out. Moreover, the movie at times comes awkwardly closer to an organizer's handbook than to an artistic recreation. Still, what's up there, on the screen, far surpasses anything depicting America's hidden history in decades, including the badly compromised but award-winning Norma Rae. Chris Cooper shines as the low-key organizer, and who else but an independent filmmaker would dare present a red in sympathetic light. I like the way he thoroughly Americanizes Cooper, unlike the sinister foreign weasles of studio stereotype. Outstanding too is Kevin Tighe as an arrogant union-buster who, as the screenplay makes clear, is also a WWI war hero, having killed many Germans and proud of it. In fact the contrast between the two sides is capsulated by Cooper's observation that the war was about workers killing workers for the benefit of industrialists and politicians. A point Tighe could never comprehend, but one Eugene Debs could not have said better.

The photography and costuming are outstanding, conveying genuine period flavor. The town of Matewan appears appropriately gritty and depressed, lending a nobility to those who defend it. Moreover, the struggle, as Sayles shows, is not only the classic labor vs. capital, but for the soul of Christianity in which Will Oldham's social gospel competes with Sayles' (in a bit part) hellfire and brimstone. Like Salt of the Earth, feminist themes occasionally surface with vivid force, such that it's no surprise when the disrespectful Tighe gets his final comeuppance from a woman. The ending is suitably ambiguous, with a begrimed Oldham staring balefully into the camera and into the future. Sayles has always had a strong social conscience. Here however he shows real guts in taking on themes that send cold shivers down Hollywood's spine as studio heads cast a wary eye toward their Wall St. bankrollers. Like so much else, Matewan demonstrates that in America, truth, such as it is, is only to be found on the margins. Thank goodness for these margins, like independent filmmaking, Matewan, and John Sayles.

Rating:
Summary: Great Production, Absurd Characters
Review: The acting, cinematography, and direction in this movie were excellent. The screenplay is clever in many ways. What makes this movie a total disaster is the way it develops its' characters. The bad guys in this film are so thoroughly evil and detestable, that they are just not believable. The good guys in this film are not quite perfect all the time. It rightly portrays the violence that union workers used to restrict competition for jobs. However, the workers all end up 'uniting in the face of evil'. They set aside their bigotry and distrust for outsiders in general all too easily. There is another hint of reality. It briefly mentions government support of business (the real source of such societal ills), but dwells mostly on the imaginary evils of capitalism. The 'hero' of this film gets portrayed as a kind of angel who can do no wrong. If you are a left wing union worshiper this film will seem real to you. If you think, you will see it as nothing more than pro union, anti freedom propaganda.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful film
Review: The familiar story of the struggles of workers trying to unionize is set in a grimy Appalachian coal mining town. The union busters sent in by the mine's owners are particularly brutal. You can't help but cheer for the townspeople as they try to piece together their lives and find hope for the future. Chris Cooper gives a subdued but powerful performance as a union organizer who tries to soothe the prejudices of miners while uniting them. The always wonderful Mary McDonnell (one of Hollywood's most under-valued actresses, I think) is here in one of her early films, as a loving and determined single mother who tries to cope with loneliness while dealing with the turmoil around her (the union busters take up residence in her boarding house-home and terrorize within those walls as well). You'll forgive the low budget and slightly too long running time as you appreciate this powerful story.

Rating:
Summary: Bleak mood sets the tone of this coal mine strike story
Review: This 1987 film, written and directed by John Sayles, is based on a real incident from the 1920, when workers from a West Virginia coal mine went on strike. Chris Cooper stars as a labor union organizer who comes to the town which is run the Company that have just brought in a trainload of black men as well as a group of Italian families to do the work of the strikers. James Earl Jones is cast as the leader of the blacks who says out loud that he understands people can't help calling him the "N" word, but no man can ever call him a "scab". Will Oldham is cast as a 14-year old mine worker and sometimes preacher. There are heroes and villains in this film, and Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp are the kind of bad guys you love to hate.

The pace is slow as the story unfolds, each actor giving depth to his or her role. The Union is represented as a good and unifying force for the diverse types of people caught up in the drama. The company is represented as bad. Really bad. Not only did they exploit their workers and push people out of their homes, they also did not stop at brutal murder. There were enough personal stories to keep the film interesting although I found some of the speeches a little long and talky. It was all about mood and bleakness and John Sayles sure is a master of setting the mood. Most of the extras in the film lived in the area of Appalachia where it was shot and the close-ups of their faces added to the film's authenticity.

One of the problems was that the transfer of the film to DVD wasn't done well. The sound was muffled and some of the words were indistinct. And the shots set in the forest were so dark that it was hard to tell what was going on. I enjoyed the film although I thought it was too long. Followers of John Sayles work will enjoy it though, as well as those with an interest in union struggle.