Matewan (1987)

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Directed by John Sayles.

Starring Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Will Oldham, Bob Gunton.

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Independent filmmaker John Sayles creates one of his more artistic works with this period feature about a volatile 1920s labor dispute in the town of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan is a coal town where the local miners' lives are controlled by the powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company practically owns the town, reducing workers' wages while raising prices at the company-owned supply and grocery. The citizens' land and homes are not their own, and the future seems dim. When the coal company brings immigrants and minorities to Matewan as cheaper labor, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) scours the town to unite all miners in a strike. As the crisis grows, strikers and their families are removed from their homes by two coal company mercenaries (Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp, both also featured in Sayles' Eight Men Out (1988)), and the situation heads toward a final shootout on Matewan's main street . Sayles' simple but telling screenplay brings to light the treatment of immigrants and minorities in the early 20th century South, and it draws sharp parallels between the Matewan labor battle and the Civil War some 50 years earlier. The visual feel of the film is real West Virginia backwoods, with much of the credit going to legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler, whose warm, rustic lighting belies the anxiety and terror felt by the oppressed townspeople. ~ Norm Schrager, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Strike Scraps, 11/01/07
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

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"There’s gotta be a whole panoply of emotions swirling through Hollywood in advance of the strike–anger, frustration, exhilaration–but here on the internet (ironically, one of the contested spaces from which the writers want a larger cut), we’re pretty much all looking from the outside in. So that means it’s business as usual…which means snark and opportunism. Here’s some of the best: There were no blogs in 1988, during the last WGA strike–there was only Moonlighting. AMC’s Future of Classic blog has a post about strike movies. There’s a poll where you can vote for your favorite, but seems to be busted, because my vote didn’t register. For the record, I chose Matewan. Also from FoC: A warning that the longer this goes on, the higher the probability of a Jackass 3. “I???m Brian Williams, and I???ll be hosting Saturday Night Live this week. And if the threatened writers??? strike takes place, I???ll be hosting My Name is Earl.??? [Lost Remote] The masters of non-scripted content at ... " [More]

The Brother From Another Planet
by HairyLime in HairyLime Blog

loved it.

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"Early John Sayles film that I saw once years and years ago, and then revisited again recently. It still holds up pretty well. Joe Morton gives an outstanding understated performance without uttering a sound, and the endless parade of oddball characters he comes into contact with throughout the movie are wonderful little set pieces, expecially the regulars at the bar where a lot of the action takes place. As usual with Sayles, he can say much more on a limited buget than movies three times the size. The drug message is a little heavy handed, and the ending is a bit confusing and abrupt (is he saying something here about the Black experience of being displaced, about the ideas of where you are FROM versus where you ARE?) - Like I've said before, ambiguous endings keep me coming back.It says a lot for Sayles that he can manage to keep bringing back the same stable of talented actors to work with him again and again, and you will notice a lot of familiar faces from his other films ... " [More]

matewan
by weanjoe1 in weanjoe1 Blog

loved it.

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"a must see " [More]

Matewan
by paul in paul on spout.com

loved it.

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"Matewan David Webb Peoples, the screenwriter for Unforgiven (1992), drew the bulk of his research For that film from a book called The Shooters (1976). Among many misconceptions that the book debunks about the Old West is that of The Outlaw. The typical convention around outlaws in the movies basically follows this path: 1. Outlaw comes to town.2. Timid townsfolk don't want any trouble.3. Marshall steps in to say hello and communicate on behalf of the townies that they don't want any trouble.4. Shortly thereafter, the trouble begins.5. The Marshall takes action. In the movies, the problem seems to stem when the term "outlaw" is only applied to a working class type criminal. The reality in the Old West was that some outlaws wore black hats and others worked in mahogany paneled offices. The common man felt cheated and oppressed by the rich and, therefore, celebrated outlaws who were viewed as exacting a sort of Robin Hood type vengeance. Only in the Old West, Robin Hoo ... " [More]

Fritz Lang's M
by paul in paul on spout.com

loved it.

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"M One of the basics of screenwriting is to establish the hero's world in your story and then throw off that world's equilibrium. Dorothy loses her dog, Luke loses his droids, and Dumbo's born with a birth defect. In Fritz Lang's M, a little German town has a serial killer on the loose. Made in 1931, M established many conventions that would become staples in the Psychological Thriller genre. However, unlike most of the pioneering films of its time, M's value isn't only in its historical significance because it's still more terrifying than most serial killer movies put out today. I have to applaud Lang for realizing so early that horror happens in the imagination. That realization has unfortunately not carried over into many of today's psychological thrillers. Silence of the Lambs is one of the few exceptions. Jonathan Demme (dir. of Lambs) uses the darkest recesses of our minds to fill in what Hannibal Lector is capable of instead of showing it on screen. When Ridley S ... " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

liked it.

Writer-director John Sayles specializes in recasting American history through the eyes of overlooked working-class heroes, and his story of striking West Virginia coal miners in the 1920s is one of his most polished and accessible achievements. Based on a bloody battle in the town of Matewan, the film examines labor unions from a critical perspective, shedding light on racial and cultural attitudes that hampered the movement. James Earl Jones gives a powerful, minimalist performance as the miners' leader. Sayles appears in a minor role, as he often does in his own films, as a conservative minister who preaches against the union organizers. Thanks to cinematographer Haskell Wexler, the film is visually rich. Sayles's dialogue and the period settings and costumes are wonderfully authentic, and the customary low budget of a Sayles movie never seems obvious. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Tags: sui-generis , bishop , boss-employer , coal , family
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