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Matewan
1987
The year is 1920, the setting Matewan, West Virginia, where the town's coal miners labor under miserable, unhealthy conditions. Enter Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), a rebellious union leader who wants to organize the West Virginian miners, as well as the Italians and blacks brought in as workers. Based on a real massacre in .. Read more
| Starring | Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Ken Jenkins |
|---|---|
| Director | John Sayles |
| Genres | Drama |
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Matewan
The year is 1920, the setting Matewan, West Virginia, where the town's coal miners labor under miserable, unhealthy conditions. Enter Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), a rebellious union leader who wants to organize the West Virginian miners, as well as the Italians and blacks brought in as workers. Based on a real massacre in Matewan that started the 1920-1921 Coal War between miners and coal company thugs, MATEWAN subverts the convention of Westerns like HIGH NOON. Kenehan is not the drifter who will save the miners with his skill at a six-shooter; rather, he is a pacifist whose message of non-violent resistance the miners have difficulty accepting. The story is divided into four parts, alternating between times when Kenehan prevails and times when the instinct for revenge against the coal company wins out. The first large-scale historical epic made by director John Sayles (who once worked in the Meat Packer's Union), MATEWAN is a subtle strike against the anti-union climate of the 1980s and a moving portrait of the difficulties of collective action.
| Starring | Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Ken Jenkins |
|---|---|
| Director | John Sayles |
| Studio | OPTIMUM |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 7 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | English |
| Released | DVD: 02 Apr 2001 Production year: 1987 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (4)
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When the local coal company cuts the pay of its mainly white workforce and begins using blacks and Italian immigrants at cheaper rates, tensions run high in the West Virginian mining town of Matewan. Union organiser Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) arrives to sort out the increasingly violent confrontation. Set in the 1920s, this is in many respects a western: the good, the bad and the ugly characters are clearly delineated, even if writer/director John Sayles often gives them speeches instead of dialogue. Films about the American labour movement are thin on the ground, so this uncompromising, fact-based drama is to be savoured. The glowing cinematography is by Haskell Wexler.
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"...MATEWAN is a heartfelt, straight-ahead tale of labor organizing in the coal mines of West Virginia in 1920....MATEWAN is certainly Sayles' best-looking, most professional film to date with period-perfect production design..."
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Most helpful member's review
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11 out of 11 people found this review helpful
A great American movie
'Matewan' is a great example of how film can engage with social issues, politics and history, without becoming dry or polemic.
Like Sayles' more recent 'Sunshine State', the movie is a meditation on the effects of changing industrial society on the community and the individual, and like that film, is rooted in American history, and is unafraid to wrestle with some of the great American taboos; communism, the depression, fundamentalist religion.
It's a very interesting cinematic document, too, as a milestone in the career of one of independent cinema's most creative and important directors; as one of the few movies that the superb Chris Cooper has taken the lead role; and as the most enduring performance in the short film career of the great American songwriter Will Oldham.
It's a beautiful film, shot with a love of the landscape that is echoed throughout Sayles' best work, not least in 'Lone Star'.
Ultimately, though, 'Matewan' is a human drama both of and about integrity, passion and belief in ideals, and stands as one of the great American films of the 1980s. -
Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Sub Zola
'Matewan' is enjoyable because the story of the Workers oppressed by the Bosses is always a good one. But, quite early on, I found myself thinking, 'This isn't just inspired by 'Germinal', it's a rip-off of 'Germinal'! It's different, in parts, of course, being set in the good old USA, with guns an' everyfink, but 'Germinal' is much more powerful, with Gérard Depardieu in the lead and from the pen of a master novelist, Emile Zola. The photography of 'Germinal' is brilliant, with the the black, clanging, pit-head and underground at the coal-face, and the scenes with the rich, bourgeois, coal owners give a contrast to the lives of the miners which adds greatly to the poignancy of the tale. I'm afraid 'Matewan' doesn't match the power of 'Germinal' and seems a bit two-dimensional and cardboard in comparison - and I kept thinking, 'But it's been done before' (even to the extent of copying the café scenes in 'Germinal') 'and better'.
See for yourself. Rent 'Germinal'. -
News and features
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Honeydripper
- 06 May 2008
What a great name for a blues movie! 'Honeydripper' just oozes innuendo in the best way. Mmm-hmmm. If Big Bill Broonzy didn't come up with it, well, he should have. The year is 1950 and Tyrone (Danny Glover) is the proprietor of the Honeydripper Lounge, a gin mill on the outskirts of Harmony, a rural Alabama cotton town. Business is bad. The juke joint next door is fit to burst but Tyrone prefers Bertha Mae's old time moanin' blues ' even if no one else does. Even so, the wolf is at the door... Read more
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Matewan
The year is 1920, the setting Matewan, West Virginia, where the town's coal miners labor under miserable, unhealthy conditions. Enter Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), a rebellious union leader who wants to organize the West Virginian miners, as well as the Italians and blacks brought in as workers. ...
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