Years ago, I mentioned to my former boss that I grew up in Scranton, PA and that my grandfather was a coal miner so he highly recommended that I should watch this movie. His other selling point was that James Earl Jones was in it.
After years of waiting for it to be available on streaming to no avail, I realized that I could borrow movies from my local library. I got the Criterion DVD version which was released in 2019.
Plot wise - the movie is based on a true story of the events of Matewan, West Viriginia in the 1920s where the town was essentially owned and run by the coal company. Due to the harsh conditions, the workers decided to strike and form a union. The coal company hired foreigners and African Americans to work as scabs. Joe Kenehan, played by Chris Cooper (his first film), enters to help support the workers and form their union along with the foreigners and African Americans. He wants to do it without violence. As you can surmise, this does not go well and there is a lot of in-fighting and turmoil. On top of that, the coal company sends violent people to break up the union. The big build up is this western style shootout on the main street of town.
Is this movie worth your time? It's hard to say. It's definitely dated and you can tell there was a very small budget. The main story is a little slow, but there is an interesting mini arc in the middle of the movie regarding Joe and a local woman working with a spy for the coal company. James Earl Jones has a few lines, but he kills it. The best thing about this movie is the acting. The child acting is a little much, but you have to give them props for holding their own. There are a lot of familiar faces like the Warden from Shawshank (Bob Gunton), the woman from Dances with Wolves (Mary McDonnell), and the weird teacher from Happy Gilmore (Josh Mostel). Also if you're a fan of Newsies, Kevin Tighe plays an antagonists in both this movie and that one. He definitely has a face of a villain. And last, but not least was a young David Strathairn who's been in a whole bunch of stuff like A League of Their Own.
Overall, there's a powerful story here, with a few gut punches, but this movie didn't knock it out of the park for me. I can see why it critically acclaimed and part of the Criterion collection, but I felt it could have used a little bit more to keep me engaged in the middle to last act. It's funny though as I find myself typing this review and rethinking on it, I wouldn't mind watching it again.
