Matewan

Rating:
Summary: My favorite John Sayles film
Review: This film is extraordinary. The script is wonderful, the acting superb. (Sayles himself does a cameo as the local preacher). Mason Daring's fabulous soundtrack greatly enhances the film (he is a Sayles favorite and often does soundtracks for the Nova series on PBS). There are no mediocre performances here -- and Chris Cooper, Mary McDonnell and James Earl Jones are extraordinary (as are many of the actors you've never heard of). The subject matter is rather hard to watch (poor coal miners getting abused by their employers), but it's worth getting past that. Others have talked at length about the story and its authenticity -- all I can say in addition is that this is one of my top 5 favorite films.

Rating:
Summary: A Stunning Look at the Industrial Warfare of the 1920s.
Review: This is an extraordinary film. I use it in my labor history class to help students understand the industrial warfare of the 1920s. Chris Cooper gives a stunning performance. The character he plays helps students to understand the convictions and motivations of a former Wobbly and to see how union organizers put their lives on the line.

Matewan offers students a rich portrait of the fight for unionization that I could not provide them in any other way. The only trouble my students had was with the Southern accents. I wrote up an outline for them, including some of the outstanding quotes from Chris Cooper's character, and that seemed to help.

Many of my students purchased this film so they could watch it again at home.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A great movie from a great author
Review: This is based on a single flashback chapter from John Sayles' wonderful novel, "Union Dues." If you liked the movie, you'll be surprised by the book because most of it is set in a completely different time and place. But many of Sayles' recurring themes about working people like us come through loud and clear. This is Sayles at his best, in both "Union Dues" and "Matewan."

Rating:
Summary: Amazing movie, poor transfer and muddy sound on DVD
Review: This is one of my favourite movies, and my favourite one by John Sayles (all are good though) but the DVD version is pretty nasty. I just got it from Netflix and was very disappointed with the transfer and the sound quality. I'm nothing like a cinemaphile or audiophile but this was pretty bad. The sound is especially muddy and full of hiss, when combined with the thick West Virginia accents of all the actors makes it near impossible to understand some lines. The VHS version is MUCH better, which is pretty sad, analog sound better than digital. There were a few spots where the transfer was glaringly bad, flickering and horizontal black lines in the background. This amazing and underrated movie deserves a much better DVD issue.

Rating:
Summary: A Spellbinding Movie
Review: This movie is sooooo great! It is a ..must ..see!
I loved the realness of it, you feel their pain and their triumphs. I loved the singing! I wish I could have heard more of the singing. I definitely want to own this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening
Review: This story is based upon, and rooted in, history. The one reviewer, DM, listed below, should learn the history of the West Virginia coal wars before spouting his own apriori ideology. If you want a sense of how working people, dependent upon their employers, can be manipulated and controlled, using any means available, this story will provide it. The struggle of labor for the right to earn a living wage is a sad, sad story. Forget for a minute that the workingman's struggle would ultimately be co-opted and subverted--this tale of the early days of Union organizing, and the stakes involved, does have the potential to inspire you to rethink the ways and means of authoritarianism--and your relationship to it. As the words to the old organizers song went: Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

Rating:
Summary: MATEWAN as teaching tool
Review: To avoid repeating what others have said, I'll just concur that this movie has the ring of truth about a little-known chapter of American labor history, and writing, acting and photography are superb. I showed it to two classes of students this semester and they were almost all fascinated. (Freshmen!) I was asked why they didn't learn about the mine wars of West By-Gosh in their history classes, which led to interesting discussion questions like "who writes history?" I used the film in conjunction with Denise Giardina's STORMING HEAVEN--a novel about the same mine wars. Both are based on actual events and lives.

For material that promotes fast-paced classroom discussion, Sayle's MATEWAN can't be beat. He is a fascinating writer and producer; MATEWAN is, however, the best Sayles' movie I've seen on all counts--writing, acting, photography, and historical content. Some reviewers here have called it slow-moving. I have watched it at least 5 times and find it just as compelling now as when I viewed it the first time. Buy it--you won't be sorry!