Harlan County, U.S.A. - Criterion Collection
by Barbara Kopple
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Houston Elmore, John Corcoran, John O'Leary, Norman Yarborough, Phil SparksDirector: Barbara Kopple
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Hart Perry
Cinematographer: Kevin Keating
Producer: Barbara Kopple
Editor: Lora Hays
Editor: Mary Lampson
Editor: Mirra Bank
Editor: Nancy Baker
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-23
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Harlan County, U.S.A. - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Which Side Are You On, Which Side Are You On?
Summary: 5 Stars
"Harlan County USA" is an excellent, compelling documentary. Depicting a strike by coal miners in West Virginia in the early 70s, the film gives a snapshot of arguably the last years of the "organized labor era" that began in the 30s. We see how the miners' families lived- they were very poor even by the standards at the time; mothers give their children baths in tin tubs, for example. Despite the poverty and hardship, the community sticks together, and eventually wins.
Particularly interesting was how larger social changes are reflected in the strike. For example, black miners are welcome and included in the miners' community. In addition, the miners' wives play a very big role in organizing and generating support for the strike. At one point, some of them directly confront the sheriff about the picket line- women would probably not have done that, especially in West Virginia, 20 years earlier. Further, it will probably surprise a lot of people to know that there was a grassroots labor movement in the south, but there was. How "union" became a dirty word in dixie even for those who would benefit from one is a complicated subject outside the scope of the movie.
Throughout, we hear the inspired folk labor songs of the great Hazel Dickens. It's almost worth the movie just to hear her sing. Dickens herself is a daughter of a coal-mining family, and is very familiar with labor struggles.
In sum, watch this if you want a real-life depiction of a unique American time and place.
Summary of Harlan County, U.S.A. - Criterion Collection
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. 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.A man crouches and pokes at what first appears to be a wad of chewed-up pink bubble gum on the ground. "That's what a scab will do to ya, by God," he says, his voice quavering with emotion. The pink wad is brain tissue from a striker shot in the head by a strikebreaker. That's one of the harsh realities of Harlan County USA. Barbara Kopple's documentary camera looks at this forgotten corner of 1970s America, the site of some of the bitterest labor violence in American history. It's hard to believe that some 40 years after the Depression, there were parts of Appalachia that were hardly better off than they were in the 1930s. The care-worn faces of the miners and their families speak volumes. They're the tough, proud faces of people struggling to make a living the way that their parents and grandparents did in generations past. Kopple skillfully weaves archival footage and traditional labor songs through the film to give a historical perspective to the strike against Eastover Mining Company. Above and beyond the labor issues, the film takes a hard look at the living conditions, health issues, and poverty faced by Harlan's residents, the human toll that goes along with the mining industry. The tense confrontations between Eastover's slimy security goons and the unionizers are particularly gripping, with the threat of violence hanging thick in the air. Sometimes ugly, always absorbing, this is an important, enlightening social record, one that serves the highest calling of the documentary filmmaker's art. --Jerry Renshaw
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