In remembrance of the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, we are proud to present this classic of American labor cinema, with an all-star cast including Chris Cooper, Will Oldham (of "Bonnie Prince Billy" fame) and Sayles himself.
This 1987 feature film written and directed by John Sayles is based on the true story of an infamous battle in the 1920's West Virginia "Mining Wars," when miners all over Appalachian Coal Country struggled to organize with the United Mine Workers union.
The bitter struggle pits the white miners of Matewan, African American and Italian miners who are brought in as "scabs" but join the union cause, a UMW organizer, local mountaineers, and the townsfolk of Matewan against the Stone Mountain Coal Company, gun thugs from the Baldwin-Phelps Detective Agency, a rabidly anti-union "hardshell" Baptist preacher, and double-crossing agents provocateur.
Sayles and his cast deliver a thought-provoking, emotional roller coaster of a story that illustrates the hard truth of what it took to win the rights and benefits that many workers came to take for granted in the late 20th century--all too many of which are being steadily chipped away at by corporations and government in this new century.
But, as Oldham's "boy preacher" character testifies in the film's final moments, the struggle for dignity, democracy, and justice on the job goes on, from one generation to the next, as workers organize and fight back, even against the longest of odds.