Audrey Hurley: The Coal Miners of Matewan (John Sayles' Matewan

The Coal Miners of Matewan



This film gives a depiction of the struggle of the American coal miner, especially the coal miners of Matewan, West Virginia in the early twentieth century. The film not only brings a historical plot to life but also raises some interesting questions about economics and power. The big companies such as the Stone Mountain Coal Company practically owned the town and the people working for them. They owned the housing as well as the stores creating a monopoly and giving them the advantage to exploit the workers. The company could raise the rent or the price of goods without increasing the salary of the workers. I thought this film did a good job of portraying the reality and the frustration from the lack of options the coal miners faced.

As a great-granddaughter of a coal miner, I have heard many accounts of my families harsh background. My granddad began working in the coal mines of Harlan, Kentucky when he was fourteen and continued to work in the mines for thirty-seven years. He worked in order to support his wife and their thirteen children. I have never met my granddad, great-grandmother, nor most of my Granny’s siblings. Life was hard then and they were very poor; most died well before my father’s time. They lived on one of the mountains barely making end’s meet. My Granny, at a very young age, would gather kindling wood and go house to house on the mountain selling it to help support her family. I haven’t really heard from my Granny too much about the struggle between the coal company and the workers but, then again, she was the second to youngest of thirteen and probably didn’t see as much of the others.

Harlan had it’s fair share of violence but it seemed to exist more among the families living there than with the big companies. I have heard stories of feuding and I myself had a great-uncle shot and murdered back in the 1950's (he was sleeping with someone’s wife). All of the stories I have heard seem somewhat unreal. My Granny was the only one in her family to go to school and graduate with a nursing degree. She and my grandfather also had the good sense to get out of there and move to Louisville where my dad was raised. I have never visited Harlan, Kentucky; my father says there is nothing there to see. The few relatives I still have living in Harlan live in poverty, are high school drop-outs, and have a few illegitimate children running around. I believe the mining of this town to have a direct correlation with the poverty there is there today.

I have a hard time appreciating the cinematography and the quality of film from older movies such as this one. There were a couple of shots that I found provoking such as the dim lit scene at the dinner table in which the lighting was so low and dispersed it looked like the room was smoky and really helped to create the mood. Another interesting shot which comes to mind is when the gunmen are approaching the town walking along the train tracks and the camera is moving backwards in step with them. Sayles did move the audience quickly from scene to scene and I thought this was an effective way of providing information and progressing the plot forward. The dialogue in the film seemed more than a bit conjured, especially of that of the townspeople. Another thing that bothers me in movies about “Appalachia” is the woman in every film that sings and in Matewan there was no exception. This film had a very slow start and didn’t really capture my interest until at least midway or maybe after. Overall, I thought this film had some decent, notable actors but more importantly served it’s purpose in showing the coal miner’s plight.