ChanBot
i must have seen a different film!!
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Loui Blair
It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
Dana
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
carolina torres
In my opinion, Matewan didn't look great. It was based during the 1920 in the life of coal workers in West Virginia going on strike. It was straight forward. The cinematography was amazing for an indie film. I was surprised in some scenes but most of it was a blur. The main characters were cynical men who hated there lives. There is no justice for the black men that are coming from Alabama to work in the coal mines out or work and no way to support there family they travel to west Virginia to work in the coal mine. The white men form the coal mines in West Virginia onto accept these black men.This happens the same in the mountains of Chiapas for the indigenous people and the Mexican government not acknowledging them part of the people. They are angry because there is no work and for a black man to get a job and cut there hours sound ridiculous for them. The movie was boring and a blur there were moments where the Man sticks up for him self in the cabins sticking up for his rights that he deserves the same amount of money as they do because he works as hard as they do. The scene of the black man for me represents how this issue relates to my project and the injustice some face. The unions is a way to unite all races blacks, whites, and Italian coal miners, this what Danny i explain to them.
Michael Neumann
Writer director John Sayles turns the pages of history back to West Virginia circa 1920, where overworked and underpaid employees of the Stone Mountain Coal Company attempt to unionize the mines, touching off a violent confrontation with company strikebreakers. The background is perfect for what should have been a tidy little historical drama, but Sayles opts for the romantic approach, with lots of photogenic poverty and soft-focus solidarity. His intentions are honorable, but the film is far too superficial to function as anything more than propaganda: the miners all wear halos, the company gunmen all have forked tails, and the final showdown comes after one too many subplot and campfire sermon. Capable performances and scenic photography aren't enough to compensate for an overplotted, overwritten script, which too often sounds like a grade school primer on early labor organization. The facts demand more than the two-dimensional treatment given here.
poppy_420
I found the movie to be very good. The sole problem is that there is so much information to convey in a short period of time, there had to be some glossing over of the events that transpired.Being a big issue for the region at the time, the movie captured the feel of the plight of the area so well. If you are looking for more information and in greater depth than the 127 minutes of the film allows, try and find the book "Night Comes to the Cumberlands" by Harry M Caudhill which deals with the plight of the miners.Having the miners paid by company scrip and the shops (owned by the companies) taking scrip for their goods only was such a cunning move.
donbogosian
In the movie Matewan about a coal mining strike of the 1920's, the steam engine shown was actually built in the 1940's and was shown traveling along welded rail which was not introduced until the 1970's. Despite this technical inaccuracy it is still an excellent film, well acted and written, and worth the viewers' time.I realize that at the time the movie was made the active rail lines in West Virginia were welded and not jointed, so perhaps to keep the overall location accurate,( Matewan is in Kentucky, right across the ridge from West Virginia), they had to use jointed rail.The engine in the movie was a more modern steam engine but very few working engines exist from the 1920's. And yes, I am a trainspotter.
