ironhorse_iv Review of Harlan County U.S.A.

Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)

What side are you on? Don't know about you, but I like this film. Very Powerful.

[9/10 · 12 July 2013]

This film is a must see for everyone. So powerful and provokes so many different emotions on different levels. This 1976 Oscar-winning documentary film is amazing film that documents the coal miners' strike against Duke Power Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky. Duke Power refusal to sign a contract that would allow the miners to join with the United Mine Workers of America. By joining the UMWA, the workers would had safer working conditions, fair labor practices, and decent wages that Duke Power weren't eager to do for them. The documentary covers the violent clashes between gun-toting company thugs and the picketing miners. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. It's mention a bit about 1930's The Harlan County War in the film, but I wish they did talk more about it. The Harlan County War was a series of coal mining-related skirmishes, executions, bombings, and strikes between the mining company and its workers. The county has been the site of repeated attempts to organize labor and gain better deals from owners, beginning in the early 20th century, primarily related to the coal mining industry. Violent confrontations among strikers, strikebreakers, mine company security forces and law enforcement are just part of life there. Director Barbara Kopple who has long been an advocate of workers' rights was initially intended to make a film about Kenzie, Miners for Democracy and the attempt to unseat Tony Boyle, the current president of the United Mine Workers of America union at the time. When news broke out about what was happening in Harlan County, she went over to cover it. Kopple and her crew spent years with the families depicted in the film, documenting the dire straits they find themselves in while striking. The film following them to picket in front of the stock exchange in New York, filming interviews with people affected by black lung disease, and even catching miners being shot at while striking. There's no narration. Only the words and actions of the miners and their families are heard. The people tell the entire story. It's a unique and very interesting film. The background noise in some interviews can be a bit annoying when children, animal noises and the machine noise makes it hard to hear, you're trying to listen in what the people being interview are trying to say. The film was brilliant and showed not only the actual living conditions in a mine town, but gave insight into the daily lives of people setting out to get what they perceived as their due from a behemoth of an employer. I came away from this film feeling that I knew more about Appalachia, it's people, and their resolve. I learned to appreciate them as individuals. Dirt roads, no plumbing, wages lower than the standard living condition rates, abused mentally and physically by a large monopolistic corporation, and a lack of a full education are all factors that led to the strike of the minors in Harlan County. Some people who watch it, might not understand what they go through. Too many will only hear the strange way the people speak and consider them dumb or white trash. Not using some narration to tell the story was the only fault I ever found with the film. There is a number of interesting characters. One central figure in the film is Lois Scott, who spur the community in support of the strike. It's nice to see woman play a great role in labor causes. The most effective picketers were the miners' wives, but even the ladies had to be careful. The documentary contains an infamous scene where guns are fired at the strikers in the darkness before dawn, and Kopple and her cameraman are knocked down and beaten. Then there was a scene in which human brain matter was shown, that can be a bit disturbing for any weak-stomach viewers. Kopple felt it was important to continue filming or pretend to, when they were out of fill because their presence and support actually kept the violence down. Great documentary. Makes you believe in Unions and collective bargaining power. The sad thing is some Unions don't do squat for people except get you a yearly pay raise. I would have love more balance to shows the pros and cons of having a Union. Yes, some unions are filled with corruption and theft. The days of a worker getting paid $40 an hour to watch a machine are over, America can't afford people to have those type jobs. The real hard working people are the ones who start a business from scratch take the risks and those people supply jobs & write most people paychecks. Still, some people here have been brainwashed to believe that Union means Mafia or communism, of course, it isn't. In this film, the Union seem like a just cause. The film does a good job chronicling the plight of the miners and telling their personal stories in a moving way, and the meaningful catchy coal mining songs add to the emotional impact of the historical event. Opening song "Dark as a Dungeon." Written by Merle Travie tells how it is to work in a mine. One of the highlights of the film is seeing Florence Reece sing the 1931's "Which Side Are You On?". Other great bluegrass and folks songs in the soundtrack were written by Hazel Dickens, and others. All of them pretty much help set the settling and tone of the film. Overall: You must be very prosperous and powerful not to like this movie, and not to be able to sympathize with the suffering, hard-working classes of people such as coal miners. If you were to experience true hardship you might eventually develop understanding of people who are devoted to telling the story of impoverished, oppressed people and their spokespeople. So check it out.