A very rare film released in 1987 and carried by a sensational cast, “Matewan”, available on Amazon via the Warner pass, evokes a tragic page in American history, a prelude to the largest armed uprising in the country since the Civil War.
Actor (we notably saw him in Spike Lee’s Malcolm singularity in his choices, fiercely preserving a certain artistic independence… And the financing difficulties that often go with it.
A rather rare and relatively unknown director in France, his last breakthrough dates back to 1996, with his fantastic film Lone Star, in which a sheriff tried to solve a murder 37 years after the fact. This is already a nice recommendation.
But above all we will look at a very rare work released in 1987 and fortunately available on Amazon via the Warner Pass: Matewan. Colossal flop at the Box Office, presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987, Matewan more than worth a viewing, especially since the film has become invisible to us; not even available on physical media… Unless you turn to import.
A tragic page in American History
A sort of ideal extension to the great film Traitor on commission by Martin Ritt (in which Sean Connery finds nothing less than one of his best roles…), Matewan has in common the evocation of the terrible living conditions of miners at the beginning of the century, in the United States.
Authentic story, Matewan takes place in May 1920, in Mingo County, West Virginia. A contingent of the agency Baldwin-Felts Detective arrived by the morning train in order to expel families of miners who lived on the outskirts of Stone Mountain Coal Camp, the mining site.
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These sinister henchmen, commissioned by the company exploiting the miners paid a pittance, found Sid Hatefield, the town sheriff, on their way. Native of the region and sympathetic to the demands of the miners of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), located in the coal mines of southern West Virginia, Hatefield intervened in an escalation of violence which culminated in what was called “the Battle of Matewan”.
A terrible prelude which would later lead to a general uprising of the region’s miners in 1921; year during which an army of 10,000 of them opposed 3,000 lawyers, strikebreakers and soldiers. Known as the “Battle of Blair Mountain”, it was the largest workers’ uprising in United States history, and the largest armed uprising since the Civil War. This shows the social and political importance of the event.
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It was with this film that, in the guise of Joe Kenehan, the unionist sent by the UMWA to unite the miners, the always solid Chris Cooper made his debut in front of the camera. He is largely supported by a sensational cast, in the middle of which we find James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Bob Gunton (remember, the sadistic warden of Shawshank prison in The Escapees!), and a formidable David Strathairn, whom you you were notably able to see in the multi Oscar winner Nomadland. In Matewanhe plays Sheriff Hatefield.
Enhanced by a magnificent photo signed by the great cinematographer Haskell Wexler, two-time Oscar winner, who displays on his hunting board films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Secret Conversation, In the Heat of the Night or On the Road to Glory; shot for less than $4 million in seven weeks, politically engaged, Matewan is a very strong and moving film, as rare as it is precious. An essential testimony to the bloody history of the struggle of American workers for their rights.