Matewan (1987)

Directed by

John Sayles

Genre

drama film

Country

United States

Runtime

2h 15m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 135 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A coal miners strike in a small West Virginia town in 1920 turns violent. The film follows miners, union organizers, and company agents as tensions rise and conflict erupts.

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What happens

Matewan () is a 1987 American independent film drama written and directed by John Sayles, and starring Chris Cooper (in his film debut), James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell and Will Oldham, with David Strathairn, Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp in supporting roles. The film dramatizes the events of the 1920 Battle of Matewan, a coal miners' strike in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia. Matewan was a critical success but a box office failure, grossing under $2 million on an estimated $4 million budget. The film received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and received a Criterion Collection re-release in 2019. In 2023, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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• Draegerman Courage (1937)