Barbara Kopple's Academy Award-winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. Danny Stewart, 30, is a fifth-generation miner who began working in the industry shortly after graduating from high school in 2004. Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. Genre: Featuring a haunting soundtrackwith legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle . Cinemark It was settled in 1819 by Virginians led by Samuel Howard and was known as Mount Pleasant until renamed in 1912 for Major Silas Harlan, who was killed during the American Revolution at the Battle of Blue Licks (August 19, 1782). Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Jurassic Park Movies Ranked By Tomatometer, RT25: Celebrating 25 Years of Rotten Tomatoes, Weekend Box Office Results: Super Mario Joins the Billion-Dollar Club. "They wanted to knock us out because they didn't want a record of what was happening." Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. Harlan County lives us to its reputation. Wayne Burgess' conviction in Nakeavia Rivers' murder vacated - USA Today Barbara Kopple, Release Date (Theaters): Florence Reece wrote the song. Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music Dirt roads, no plumbing, wages lower than the standard living condition rates, abused mentally and physically by a large monopolistic corporation, and a lack of a full education are all factors that led to the strike of the minors in Harlan County. I. All that matters is making a good film.". It gets a little too dramatic at times and I think it was in some ways exaggerated, but I thinks it's one of the better documentaries to be made in the last 30 years. Terms and Policies And we hope to have a big picket line. She has said that her desire in making documentaries is to get intimate, to take a peek under the surface where outsiders dont normally get to see. Barbara Kopple's hard-hitting, rought-around the edges, people vs politics documentary definitely heats up the screen, and some thoughts. Harlan County, USA is a 1976 American documentary film covering the "Brookside Strike",[1] a 1973 effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, southeast Kentucky. Im home where I want to die at, in these mountains here, he says. Editor. She followed them to picket in front of the Stock Exchange in New York City, filming interviews with people affected by black lung disease, and miners being shot at while striking. Miners and their families responded by occupying the railroad tracks, Florida Letter Carriers Won Back Our Sunday Breaks with Direct Action , How Intermodal Yard Workers Doubled Their Pay , 'Milk Was Still Steaming, We Just Walked Out': Scenes from a Summer of Strikes in a South Carolina Starbucks , International Students in Ontario Are Fighting Wage TheftAnd Winning , Direct Action Revitalized Our Union: New Canadian Postal Veep Has a Plan to Revive Militancy Coast to Coast , As Big 3 Negotiations Loom, Belvidere Closure Shows Automakers Still Using Same Playbook, Viewpoint: Minneapolis Letter Carriers Showed We're Ready to FightTime for a National Contract Strategy, Throwing The Heroes Away: As Arkansas Tyson Plant Closes, Workers Strike over Treatment, Strike Force: Building the UPS Contract Campaign, One Breakfast at a Time. About this essay. . http://dochouse.org/cinema/screenings/harlan-county-usaIn a small Kentucky town in 1976, a coal miners' strike is underway. Work it out, and the Gatorade represents 10 percent of a daily wage. Its been months since hes had a job. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County,_USAHarlan County, USA is a 1976 American documentary film covering the "Brookside Strike", a 1973 effort of 180 . Oct 16, 1976 Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . I also found that the Catholic hierarchy was working with the coal companies. Robert and his wife, Judy, live on a plot of land off Route 568 in the tiny town of Cranks. When the documentary Harlan County, USA came out in 1976, the people of Appalachia had been having a moment. And the strikes eventual success [which comes only after a man has been shot and killed] is in large part owed to the womens perseverance. Analysis of the documentary Harlan County, USA We do them no favor when we dont show them where the trends are going, he said. In the documentary, his mother can be seen breaking down during his funeral, screaming and being carried away by male attendees. The film crew, working for over a year, was able to capture stark images of miners covered in coal dust, miners suffering the diseases that come with coal mining, scenes of violence that are shocking in their reality and nearness, and the overall spirit of the town. A gripping reality that still exists in America. Edition introduction to Harlan County USA. In this documentary about labor tension in the coal-mining industry, director Barbara Kopple films a strike in rural Kentucky. Overall, this documentary is wonderful in its ability to immerse the audience in the feeling, look, and culture of Harlan County. After the coal miners at the Brookside Mine join a union, the owners refuse the labor contract. Harlan, Kentucky - Wikipedia With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. "Harlan County" is assuredly for the little guy. Kopple brought some friends along to the festival. The community is not only suffering, says Chester Napier, 75, a former mining company driver. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. For nearly a century, Harlan County, K.Y., has occupied. At one point during a union meeting, a union leader is scolding the other men for not showing up at the picket line. By then a powerful UMWA represented 400,000 working miners, promising safety at work and an escape from the poverty that had consumed generation after generation. In April 1977, she watched from nearby mountains as floods caused by strip mining washed away everything her family owned. For example, when the strike breakers and others hired by the company show up early in the filmthe strikers call them \"gun thugs\"the company people tried to keep their guns hidden from the camera. So when this strike came up, I saw the opportunity and I jumped right in there. And jump right in they did. Federal soldiers were routinely dispatched to the coal fields in response to what one governor called a reign of terror.. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Things are looking up for the couple. Cal Winslow is the author of Radical Seattle: The General Strike of 1919, forthcoming from Monthly Review Press. Updates? Using a translator, the Spanish-speaking miners told their story. She says, I told myself then, if I ever get the opportunity to get those coal operators, I will. Much of the landscape now bears the scars of mountaintop removal mining, a last-gasp effort by coal companies to revive the industry. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. Mine workers in Harlan won living wages and benefits following a series of strikes and violent clashes with scabs and mine owners in the 1930s that earned the county the nickname Bloody Harlan.. The women of Harlan County provided much of the lifeblood of the strike, and Kopples documentation of the strike provided publicity, dignity, and a way to begin to heal. Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. Interviews with many of the miners and company executives tell the story without the narration that we see in many of today's documentary, in which the documentarian is a central character in the film. And jobs in the industry have been vanishing since the 1980s, thanks to mechanization. Coming Soon. At the beginning, mens participation is strong, but eventually wanes and its women who keep the pulse of the movement going. New machinery would transform underground miningbut at the expense of the coal miners themselves. Whatever the reason, new industry has been painfully slow to materialize. Featuring a haunting soundtrack, with legendary country and . Without womens contributions, it is unlikely that the strike would have been successful. Ill shed no tears. Benjamin Harlan McClellan passed away on 12 January, 1932 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, USA. Blair Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. Early in the film Boyle is shown in good health. Richard Dick Aos, age 85, of Pine Lake near Gonvick, MN, passed away on Friday, June 22nd, at Sanford Hospital in Fargo, ND. It seems likely that she highlights the women in the movie not just because of their significance, but also because she is interested in documenting how this stressful, sometimes traumatic strike affected women, as well. In the 1970s, a strip-mining company asserted its ownership over the mineral rights for property he owned and forced him to sell the land. Married Diana Jones on They were married Nov. 5, 1973. . She decided it was the more compelling subject, so switched the focus of her film. First of all, they were tired of the way the media portrayed thema familiar feeling today, but even worse back then. This presents young people with a hard choice. Yablonski had challenged W.A. Four generations of Roberts family have worked in the mines, including his grandfather, Charlie Simpson, his father, Bobby Simpson (p. 28) and his son-in-law, Danny Stewart (p. 28). Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and . Chester had done so well that the company owner tried to entice him to stay with a raise of $1 per hour, from $6.75 to $7.75. Its pretty disgusting. One man speaks up to say that most men are afraid to picket. HARLAN COUNTY: Women - The Cinessential Regal Our downtown is a grid pattern and making it an easy walk throughout our city where you can immerse yourself in our culture, our murals . Harlan County, USA is a 1976 Oscar-winning documentary film covering the \"Brookside Strike\", an effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, southeast Kentucky in 1973. . There is still coal in Appalachia, but also deep poverty. Bobby has continued the work since Beckys death, but the number of volunteers (like those photographed here with Bobby) has dwindled. 170 IMDb 8.2 1 h 44 min 1976. Jerry Johnson, one of the striking Eastover miners, attributes the conclusion of the strike to the presence of Kopple and her film crew: "The cameras probably saved a bunch of shooting. It was [and still is]used to signify that what happened in the realm of politics, a field largely controlled by men, affect womens everyday lives. English, Director: The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). It was perhaps the greatest union rebound ever. She was the daughter of a Kentucky coal miner and married to Sam Reece, an organizer for the radical National Miners Union, then embroiled in the bloody 1931 Harlan County war. You're almost there! A federal bankruptcy judge in Charleston, West Virginia, is currently hearing arguments to decide on the fate of the blockaded coal in Harlan county, with Blackjewel arguing the coal was . If the film crew hadn't been sympathetic to our cause, we would've lost. Many of the issues have changed, but the exploitation of coal miners, the corruption of the union, and the dangerous nature of the work have remained horrifyingly similar as the recent mine accidents attest. Simpson spent 37 years in the mines to support his wife and 14 children. And their strength was essential to the eventual success of the strike.In the first few minutes of Harlan County, U.S.A., we see a young woman talking about how her grandfather was a coal miner, how hating the company was a common household conversation, and how she too came to hate the company. Harlan County, USA is a 1976 Oscar-winning documentary film covering the "Brookside Strike", an effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Po. Now 75, Chester has endured his share of losses. All rights reserved. Harlan County USA Revisited - Medium In all, she worked on the film for four years, including preparation and editing.When Kopple and her cameraman Hart Perry showed up on the picket line, local people did not know what she was doing and were suspicious of their intentions. Striking miners in the coalfields of southern West Virginia forced the Republican governor to sign a bill that allowed compensation for black lung disease. While the womens meeting temporarily devolves into cattiness, the voice of reason prevails. Rodarte is known for its artistic mixture of high couture, California influences, and explorations into other art forms. Get more of what the mainstream media leaves out. In: A. McColl. I dont intend on going back. Hes lived in Harlan County ever since. Harlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. Their stories were often told through the songs. Meanwhile, the striking miners, many of whom are living in squalid conditions without utilities or running water, were offered a 4% pay increase, at a time when the estimated cost of living increase was 7% for that same year.Joseph Yablonski was a passionate, populistic union representative who was loved by many of the miners. In "Bloody Harlan" in the 1930s, miners and union organizers faced bayonets and many died fighting the coal bosses, helping to fuel a national wave of organizing. It contains a famous scene where guns are fired at the strikers in the darkness before dawn, and Kopple and her cameraman are knocked down and beaten. City of Harlan - Harlan County Although these miners today have no union, the mines of Harlan County have a storied history of grassroots labor militancy. Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. Harlan County, Kentucky Genealogy FamilySearch ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. As the strike dragged on for nearly a year, both sides eventually openly brandished their weapons. and the Kopple and her crew spent years with the families depicted in the film, documenting the dire straits they encountered while striking for safer working conditions, fair labor practices, and decent wages. "The personal is political" was a rallying cry of second wave feminism. The strike, which lasts more than a year, frequently becomes violent, with guns produced on both sides, and one miner is even killed in a conflict. It reflected the culture of the people of Harlan County and showed the power of folk music that was a living part of their culture. That's a must. Harlan County USA - The Criterion Channel Probate records are held by the Harlan County, Kentucky Genealogy Clerk of Court and are housed at the Harlan County, Kentucky Genealogy Courthouse. A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line. Sudie, along with the other women, know that their sons will likely be miners as well, so they arent just fighting for their husbands jobs; theyre fighting for the stability of future generations. Harlan County, USA Movie Review | Common Sense Media Who were the Howards and Turners? In 1969, Tony Boyle was challenged for the UMWA presidency by Jock Yablonski, who promised democracy in the union. Jones was well liked, young, and had a 16-year-old wife, and a baby. You see the true picture of this small town and their complete dependence on the coal mining industry. Kopple and Perry spent 18 months in Harlan County, filming what happened as it happened. They were two of the towns founding families who had feuds that lasted for generations. And it wouldn't happen over night so coal miners would have time to re-educate themselves. A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
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