When I was a latchkey kid growing up in New York in the late 1950s and 60s, I sat before the TV and watched old movies. Old movies then, of course were movies from the 1930s and 40s. Result: a case of arrested development. Past the 1960s my interest, and good opinion, of films fades out. "Matewan" is an exception. It recaptures the essence of what made movies great. John Sayles builds narrative not pizzazz. His storytelling takes the time to develop character and emotion. I don't want to call "Matewan" a throwback, because the term diminishes the idea. It is a recreation of great cinema. Each of the characters conveys a story. Each story enriches the story of the film. Even the Pinkerton (or Baldwin-Felts) goon is humanized. Hickey is not a cardboard villain. He tells his backstory. War has warped him. His experience in the trenches where he unheroically bayoneted bewildered enemy soldiers and found himself hailed a hero, has made him cynical, and indifferent to human life. The despicable company snitch also rises above cardboard villainy, a mere mercenary. He is sincerely an ideologue; when he writes to the mine bosses to warn of the union organizer's arrival he violently underlines the words: "He is A RED." We understand his hatred. When the climax arrives we understand its conflict and its characters. The acting is superb, especially Mary McDonnell and Nancy Mette. Both are magnificent as women, lonely and widowed, who have lost their men through the company's callous unconcern for safety. One struggles to live. The other withdraws into herself, sitting forlornly forever, hoping the train will bring hope. Kevin Tighe, for me, steals the movie. I love to watch an actor who knows how to chew the scenery yet stay on the sane side of histrionics.
"Matewan" is not the only film that delves (no pun intended) into the lives of miners. Its predecessors include Michael Curtiz's "Black Fury" (1935), John Ford's "How Green Was My Valley" (1941) and Martin Ritt's "The Molly Maguires" (1970). "Molly Maguires" is the weakest. Ford's backlot evocation of a Welsh mining village is lyrical, but pulls its punches. "Matewan" is the best. The only one that compares is "Black Fury." It's worth seeing if you can find a way to see it. It too was based on an actual incident. It too is a story of unionizing and strike-breaking. Barton MacLane takes Kevin Tighe's place, agent of the Coal and Iron Police. J. Carroll Naish is the forerunner of Bob Gunton's inside agitator. Paul Muni is the heroic miner. (Muni's co-star in the film, Karen Morley, was in real life one of the most politically radical actresses of Hollywood's golden era. Once the blacklist arrived she was duly proscribed.) I should also mention a French film, "Germinal" with Gerard Depardieu, the adaptation, though in my opinion a very inferior adaptation, of a very great book, Emile Zola's novel of the same name. Zola's vision of striking coal miners in 1885 is harrowing, almost unbearable, and unsurpassed in literature. Watch "Matewan" the movie and read "Germinal" the book for a one-two punch of social injustice underground.
"Matewan" is not the only film that delves (no pun intended) into the lives of miners. Its predecessors include Michael Curtiz's "Black Fury" (1935), John Ford's "How Green Was My Valley" (1941) and Martin Ritt's "The Molly Maguires" (1970). "Molly Maguires" is the weakest. Ford's backlot evocation of a Welsh mining village is lyrical, but pulls its punches. "Matewan" is the best. The only one that compares is "Black Fury." It's worth seeing if you can find a way to see it. It too was based on an actual incident. It too is a story of unionizing and strike-breaking. Barton MacLane takes Kevin Tighe's place, agent of the Coal and Iron Police. J. Carroll Naish is the forerunner of Bob Gunton's inside agitator. Paul Muni is the heroic miner. (Muni's co-star in the film, Karen Morley, was in real life one of the most politically radical actresses of Hollywood's golden era. Once the blacklist arrived she was duly proscribed.) I should also mention a French film, "Germinal" with Gerard Depardieu, the adaptation, though in my opinion a very inferior adaptation, of a very great book, Emile Zola's novel of the same name. Zola's vision of striking coal miners in 1885 is harrowing, almost unbearable, and unsurpassed in literature. Watch "Matewan" the movie and read "Germinal" the book for a one-two punch of social injustice underground.