Matewan (1987)

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Release Date: 1987

Duration: 130min

Category: Ensemble Film, Social Problem Film, Americana, Political Drama, Drama

Cast: John Sayles, Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Bob Gunton, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, Haskell Wexler, Kevin Tighe, Josh Mostel, Maggie Renzi, Will Oldham

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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... more

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 less

• Videos of Matewan

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• YouTube - Matewan (1987) - The Union

  Union meeting from the movie Matewan

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwEMIvDEFy4

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• Matewan - Matewan Review - Leonard Maltin - via reelzchannel.com - SideReel

  Matewan Review - Leonard Maltin from

  www.sidereel.com/Matewan/_watchlinkviewer/1?rss=tr...

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• Watch Matewan Movie Online Free

  www.moviesumo.com/Matewan_18594.html

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• Matewan Massacre and Blair Mtn Incident - Video

  While visiting Matewan, WV, a local told me about the history ... and informative. I taped this at the Matewan Depot Diner, . Watch...

  www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-yH4bUn8H-6I/matewan_mass...

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• Matewan: West Virginia's Coal War • VideoSift: Online Video *Quality Control

  Chris Cooper's second role. 1987.

  www.videosift.com/video/Matewan-West-Virginia-s-Co...