Matewan (1987)

Matewan: Directed by John Sayles. With Chris Cooper, Mary McDonnell, Will Oldham, David Strathairn. A labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.

“You might say we have it pretty good today, we donu0026#39;t have to pick up a rifle to form a union. This movie is based on the Battle of Matewan that took place in Matewan, West Virginia in 1920.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe conditions these workers faced were brutal. Miners had to pay for all their own equipment, their housing was owned by the mining company and they also paid for it, workers were also paid in credits which they could only use at the mining company store. Workers who went strike were subsequently evicted from their homes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie is great. Itu0026#39;s a page from history which should be told much more often. James Earl Jones is terrific as a black miner who is signed up as a scab but heu0026#39;s actually a union sympathizer who encourages the black scabs to strike with the West Virginia workers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eChris Cooper is also great as a union organizer. I think heu0026#39;s a highly underrated actor. He was very good in American Beauty as the hick next door neighbor and heu0026#39;s great in Matewan as well. Proof, I believe that he can really take on any role.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBob Gunton is also a great actor. This movie was made long before he was playing every two bit villain of the week. I think that was due to his role as the warden in The Shawshank Redemption where he just let it all out.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI liked one scene in particular early in the film where the union men on strike try to weed out Cooper by finding out how much he knows about union history. Where was Joe Hill buried? In which eye was Big Bill Haywood blind in? Cooper also quips, u0026quot;I was a Wobbly, back when that meant somethingu0026quot; But he does support the notion of One Big Union. The IWW will rise again!”