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Matewan [1987]
starring: Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Will Oldham, Mary McDonnell, Ken Jenkins
directed by: John Sayles

Used Price: £4.70

Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 5028836010845
Format: PAL
Label: Second Sight Films Ltd.
Manufacturer: Second Sight Films Ltd.
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Second Sight Films Ltd.
Release Date: April 02, 2001
Running Time: 127 minutes
Studio: Second Sight Films Ltd.
Theatrical Release Date: August 28, 1987
Sales Rank: 18008

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
A little-known chapter of American labour history is brought vividly to life in this period drama from writer-director John Sayles. It's a fictional story about labour wars among West Virginia coal miners during the 1920s, but every detail is so right that the film has the unmistakable ring of truth. The tension begins when the Stone Mountain Coal Company of Matewan, West Virginia, announces a lower pay rate for miners, who respond by calling a strike under the leadership of a United Mine Workers representative (Chris Cooper). Proving strength in numbers, the miners are joined by black and Italian miners who initially resist the strike, and a fateful battle ensues when detectives hired by the coal company attempt to evict miners from company housing. Violence erupts in a sequence of astonishing, cathartic intensity, and Matewan achieves a rare degree of moral complexity combined with gut-wrenching tragedy. The film salutes a pacifist ideal while recognising that personal and political convictions often must be defended with violence. To illustrate this point, Sayles enlisted master cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who creates the film's authentic visual texture--a triumph of artistry over limited resources. The result is a milestone of independent filmmaking, and Matewan remains one of Sayles's finest achievements. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- a timely "history" lesson
It is a rarity these days to see a film that has a social conscience, what with Hollywood more preoccupied with more action and better special effects, so watching this movie feels a little like wallowing in nostalgia. It is a slice of movie as history lesson, written and directed by one of the last humanitarian directors still working today, John Sayles.
Taking as its starting point the labour wars that went on in America during the 1920's, the film deals with the fictional account of a group of West Virginia miners in the town of Matewan. After the Stone Mine Coal Company reduces rates of pay yet again, the miners go on strike, with the result that the company bring in hired guns both to remove the miners from company owned ... Read More:

Rating:

- State of the Union
Matewan was a pleasant surprise. The subject matter cried out ‘dull but worthy’ and John Sayles is distinctly hit-and-miss when dealing with historical subjects, as the problematic Eight Men Out underlines, but this is quite a superb movie with a scope well beyond its budget. Almost a slow burn western as a miner’s strike leads slowly but inevitably to a violent shootout between the railroad detectives and the local lawman and strikers, it’s an involving and intelligent piece of work. That’s not to say it’s without problems: it perhaps overstates Kevin Tighe’s villainous stupidity (could he really have laughed his way through a sermon without seeing the relevance?), a scene where the white, black and Italian miners set aside their ... Read More:

Rating:

- Sayles' best
Many of John Sayles' films are about the oppression of the American working man by the man (Brother from Another Planet, Eight Men Out) and his broadly left-wing sensibilities suffuse all his work. It is funny that his best film (well in my opinion anyway) is literally about the oppression of the working class.

This is a fantastic movie - a terribly sad tale of a group of minors in Matewan, West Virginia in the 1920s as the struggle to unionise, fight for better pay and conditions. In fact the company is even more sinister: it owns their homes, it runs the only shop (they are not even paid in US dollars, they are paid in company scrip), effectively it owns them.

The main protagonist is the union representative sent into the ... Read More:

Rating:

- Matewan deserves to be a best seller
Matewan is a superb film, good acting, excellently shot, and a rivetting story.
The ending is violent, but that too is well done.
The film is about a coal miners strike in 1920's USA. As a union man, I was swinging between pride and anger throughout the film. It's a brilliant portrayal of what our forefathers went through to get where we are now.

Rating:

- Capitalism is only a step away from this again ....
This film is about the absolute power Capitalists want. Not the namby pamby power of the "right to manage" which Thatcher droned on about but real gun toting, red in tooth and claw absolute control.
Set in pre WW1 West Virginia, the workers have the audacity to want a better life - horror of horrors the United Minewokers of America turn up and all hell breaks loose!
After trying (and failing) to turn the various nationalities against each other, the tactic of starving the workers back and the murder of several strikers, the Capitalists hire a private army (backed up by the US Army) which brings about an enormous wild west style shoot out in the small mining town.
If you are a left leaning type it should make you fear the future; your ... Read More:

VHS : Matewan [1987]