Watch Matewan For Free

So much average

Please don't spend money on this.

Good movie but grossly overrated

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Matewan (1987): Dir: John Sayles / Cast: Chris Cooper, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, James Earl Jones, Will Oldham: Effective look into the black slave situation in the 1920's. Not sure what the title represents but the film works despite its limited budget. Set in West Virginia 1920 where coal miners fight for their jobs. Controversy erupts when black slaves are brought in to work the mines. The local Sheriff wishes to keep the peace but union officials threaten to drive people out of their homes. Chris Cooper arrives to arrange a strike but what follows is violence. Mary McDonnell opens her home to him. She has a son, played by Will Oldham and they both make the guest feel at home. James Earl Jones plays a black slave who wishes not to fight but to join up. Well written and expertly directed by John Sayles who previously made Hard Choices and Baby, It's You. Cooper gives a strong debut as someone looking for work yet gets sucked into violent conflict. David Strathairn is strong as the Sheriff who tries for order and reasoning. As these stories often are, it seems typical to conclude with a violent showdown that proves more as a showcase than a purpose. It's budget gives it the same appeal as a TV film, which also isn't good. However, it does have a strong subject regarding race and slavery and the freedom to fight for it. Score: 7 / 10

I live in Australia, so this type of American history is quite often unknown here. Over the past few weeks, I have been studying the history of the American coal mining industry. It has not been pleasant taking it all in. I recently watched a documentary Called "Harlan County USA", which covered the miners strike in the 1970's. I learned from that there was more to learn about the strike in the that occurred 1920's in Matewan, West Virginia. Fortunately I found this movie, "Matewan" and watched it. It is hard to imagine this kind of of corporate brutality being tolerated today. The acting is first rate and the screenplay is excellent. This movie looks gritty and believable. The main character, Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) is a pacifist union man sent to Matewan to try to organize the workers to form a union to fight for better conditions. He finds the workers and their families are divided and cautious on the idea. To try to quell the issue, the mining company sends two heavies in to intimidate all those concerned. The two heavies, Hickey (Kevin Tighe)and Griggs (Gordon Clapp), would have to be the most vindictive characters that I have ever seen on screen. They make your skin crawl. The events that play out until the final confrontation, are tense and realistically done. This is not a "feel good" movie, but it is a very important dramatization of a time and place that should never be forgotten. A must see movie.

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.

This 1987 film aims to document real events that concerned a small coal mining community (called Matewan) in West Virginia in 1920. The miners are trying to organize a union, much to the dismay of the company that employs them. All of the acting is great, including, in the starring role, Chris Cooper, (the Kansas City native who was the abusive father from American Beauty and who starred in another fantastic Sayles film from 1996, Lonestar), David Strathairn as the good-natured but stern police chief, and, in his only theatrical movie role ever (here at 14 years old), indie-folk legend Will Oldham, of Palace Music and Bonnie Prince Billie fame. He plays a preacher-in-training in the film, and does such a great job that it seems damn unfortunate for all of us that he didn't continue his acting career--though he would go on to make some great music, and continues to currently. It also features James Earl Jones, aka Darth Vader.Anyway, the film is very honest, subtle and exquisite. You don't feel, as you do with many films churned out by Hollywood, that things have been altered and embellished for the sake of making it interesting--it's very natural, and it seems very real. You're confidant that Sayles is giving you the truth here, as best he can, through his visual style, restrained, natural dialogue and engaging historic atmosphere.It's movies like this that renew my faith in period pieces. Important historical films at their best are able to capture a period and bring the audience as close as possible to experiencing the 'feel' of that time--I guess that kinda goes without saying though.