Customer Reviews

Harlan County, U.S.A. (The Criterion Collection)

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I told the librarian I wanted to see a video on coal mining, she handed me "Harlan County." I looked at the date - which indicated that the coal miners' strike featured in the movie took place in the early 1970s and I handed it back to her saying, "No, I'm interested in something with more history in it."

A few days later, I felt impelled to return to the library and get this VHS. I sat down to watch it one morning and could not turn it off. It's compelling, intriguing, educational and emotional. I cried several times, watching the struggle and learning more and more about a coal miner's life.

For the last few months, I've been doing research (in preparation for a book on Sears Homes) about Standard Oil's coal mines in Macoupin County, Illinois in the 1920s. "Harlan County" showed archival footage and presented information that showed what a miner's life looked like - through the ages. Duke Power's coal mines in Harlan County, Kentucky were so backwards and Standard Oil's coal mines in Macoupin County, Illinois were so progressive, that I learned more than I ever expected about early 1900s mining techniques.

The story about the man and the mules is something I'll never ever forget. Or the miner's conversation with the New York policeman. Thank God for the director Ms. Koppel, who was inspired to create this documentary! And for her having the wisdom and foresight to record these old miners' reminiscences of life in the coal mines in the early years of the 20th Century.

Suddenly, all the puzzle pieces from my months of book reading and research came together when I saw these old films and heard the miners talk.

I'll be watching it again and again - with my family, too. And I hope every person who uses electricity in this country will watch it, too.

An interesting aside - in the 1920s in Macoupin County, Illinois, one coal miner died (on average) for every 279,000 tons of coal that was mined. Between 1900-1969, 100,000 miners died in this country. Standard Oil's mines (operated from 1918-1925) in Macoupin County may have been the safest mines in the country, but several men died in those mines, too.

In 1918, Standard Oil of Indiana built 192 Sears Modern Homes for their (mostly immigrant) miners in Macoupin County. (The term "Modern Homes" simply meant that the houses had kitchens, bathrooms, running water, central heat and electricity.)

In 1973, Duke Power's miners in Harlan County were still living in shacks with no running water.

Rose Thornton

I read a comment from a reviewer who thought the film focused too much on the women and "glossed over" the past sacrifices of miners. I'm from Harlan County. My Mother was Lois Scott who was one of the women featured. I was growing up during the time and my mother risked everything to help the striking miners even though my father had a better, union job at another mine. She had "no dog in this fight" other than to help others. If you watch the film, it's plain the strike would have folded and failed had it not been for the women of the strike. My mothers father was a union organizer during the 1930's "bloody harlan" days. She wanted to help working class people with no thought of any personal gain. She passed away May 15 this year, and though I miss her so much myself, I know the world lost a working class hero that they needed even more than I did. The focus of the film was this strike, the 1930's references were background.

I am from Harlan County, Kentucky. This movie is a compelling visual of my family and its rich history of roots and labor. Harlan was known back then as "Bloody Harlan" because of the conflicts regarding the area. There is a song called "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive", it embodies this documentary of the 70s. People spent their lives digging coal until they reached the bottom of their grave.

My mother grew up in those coal camps and knew no other life. She was pregnant with me during the filming of the documentary and worked at a small resturant where she met my daddy who was a coal miner. She stated that those times were hard and just left it at that...she did not speak about it very often and when she did...it was cut short. My dad made it through the riots and protesting, but he died in those mines in 1980 from a rock fall because the saftey conditions were so poor. My stepfather has worked in the coal mines for almost 30 years. He, like many others in Harlan are aware of the dangers when traveling into this deep graveside that holds so many.

I have watched this movie many times with my grandmother who was right there on the picket lines protesting these conditions. When we watch it now, she always points at the television and says...you know that is such and such...it's funny how she never forgets who and what that time was about.

My generation of Harlan County USA has seen little of what our parents and grandparents endured back in the 1970s. My brother has now entered the world of coal mining and the tradition continues. It is much safer now. My father wants to be a Mine and Saftey inspector because he remembers what it was like and how far they have come. Coal mining is our legacy, our way of life. We hold it high and its the most respectable, honest way to make a living that you can have in our town.

We in Harlan County will never forget the documentary that showed the world who we are and what we are made of...and let it be known, that we will never back down from a fight.

This acclaimed 1976 documentary about a 1972 miners' strike in Harlan County, Kentucky has been on my "must-see" list for years now. I actually find myself feeling a little embarrassed that it's taken me almost 30 years to finally see it. On the other hand, I find myself agreeing completely with other reviewers (both on Amazon and elsewhere) who find it as relevant today as it was in the 70s. And maybe more hardhitting too.

I recall being vaguely aware of some of the United Mine Workers' concerns as a young man, but in the post-Vietnam)/Watergate era, it probably was something of a back burner story. I'm sure if I had seen this film at age 23, I would have been properly outraged. To be honest, however, I'm not sure how long that outrage would have lasted. In that tumultuous era there seemed to be so much else to be upset about. (Not that there isn't today, but I do have at least a little more perspective.)

Now more than 30 years after the events this film depicts, we can at least begin to sort out and separate this particular human drama from all the others that were clamoring for our attention at the time. And appreciate it on its own terms, at the same time understanding that issues of social injustice and exploitation were emblematic of the day.

Filmmaker Barbara Kopple and her crew did a masterful job of capturing the lives and struggles of the mining families of Harlan County. These are people you get to know and care about over the course of the two hour documentary. It's a group portrait, of course, and you know that there's more to these folks' individual lives than the camera can show. But those moments the camera does capture are poignant and dramatic, and ultimately profoundly moving.

I was glad to read from one poster below that the living conditions for Harlan County residents and workers really have improved over the past few decades. It's heartening to know that the struggle of the current generation's parents and grandparents yielded a better life for their progeny. But we know that similar struggles are taking place all over the globe. Saying that this classic documentary is still relevant 30 years on is not a just a cliche. It's a bitter truth.

(If you're at all prone to running your own double bills, you might also be interested in John Sayles' affecting drama MATEWAN about an earlier era in the miners' struggle.)

Produced and directed by Barbara Kopple, the film crew lived with the miners and their families during that period and were able to somehow get into the heart and soul of what it is to be a coal miner.

There are shots inside the mine where I can almost taste the dust and feel the claustrophobic confines. There's a shot of a woman giving a small child a bath in a tin bathtub and promising that when the strike is over, they might be able to live in a house with a real bathtub and running water. There are the miners' wives who are organizing to take a big part in the strike. And there are labor songs sung with the voices of people who really understand what these songs mean.

Most of all though, it is the faces of the people that I will never forget. There are no professional actors here; all these people are real. They are hollow cheeked, with deep lines etched on their faces and rotted which teeth which have never seen a dentist. Some are already victims of black lung disease. Others speak of husbands and grandfathers who died in mine explosions.

All this is mixed with just the right amount of historical footage to give background. There is no annoying voice over, just an occasional line of writing superimposed on the screen to clarify a point or give specific details. The miners and their families speak for themselves, sometimes directly into the camera, other times among each other.

Because of their thick Kentucky accents, I sometimes found it difficult to get every single word of dialog but this actually added to the authenticity of the video. I found myself moved by their plight, and feeling shivers of emotion throughout.

This stands out as an outstanding film and understand why it won an academy award. Recommended.

I was born and raised in Brookside, Ky. Many of the people in the film, I grew up with.My father and their fathers were hard core Union men. *Harlan,County USA* could not touch the blood that was shed previously to the 1973 Eastover, mine strike.The film glossed over,the miners and focused to much attention on the roll women played.Fighting with sticks and switches.In the 1930s Machines guns were the miners choice against scabs and gun thugs.The film with all its historical content,will find its place in history.A good film for people who are not familar with the true conditions of life in Harlan, County.

This documentary kept me glued to my seat. Being born and raised in coal country (WV) and being a union man, it really touched me. This is a must see for anyone raised near a mine and for any union member.

Dirt-poor miners struggle (to the death, in many cases) to unionize against the insurmountably evil coal bosses in this Oscar-winning documentary. Watch in awe (no joke) as simple men, women, and children, exemplify the true meaning of chasing the American dream. After watching "HCU," you'll never complain about YOUR job again. Ever.

I was introduced to this film while pursuing my undergrad degree. Our professor was a wild-haired sociology PhD that taught a class called, "The Sociology of Cultural Movements and Popular Struggle". He was fond of telling students at the beginning of the semester that he had been kicked out of more institutions than they had attended. The professor didn't say much before showing the film, but I do recall, perhaps because of its erie delivery, that the professor used the word, "powerful", repeatedly, and held up a single finger in the air. I remember his eyes scanning across our faces with out a single blink in his eyes. He knew what he was about to introduce us to. He knew that this film would change our lives. He shut off the lights and took a seat in the back of the classroom. No one moved over the two days he showed this film. We laughed and smiled when we should have, we bit our lips, we clenched our fists, we felt the small victories and joy, and thankfully, the lights were out, because I am fairly sure that more than a handful of people wiped away some tears, too. I recall that this film even managed to silence the usual sarcastic rhetoric of even the biggest class clowns. I have been haunted by this film since that initial viewing, it is a landmark of journalistic achievment.

Previous to the film's release on DVD, I would sometimes borrower it from the public library on VHS. Despite going completely retro adjusting the tracking, and tolerating the lousy, faded picture, I justified the discomfort because this film is much, much more than mere entertainment. This film stands up to repeated viewings and study. It requires time. These people give you everything they have, and all they ask for in return is some of your time.

The cast of this film are coal miners and their families. These are people barely getting by, employed in a thankless and dangerous profession, living in poverty, and yet full of passion and unbroken hope. Most did not have running water. Your printer is probably worth more than all of the worldly possessions these people owned. They had cars that barely ran, but the vehicle got them to work. They had each other, and that's about it. However, when they realized, collectively, and decided, collectively, that the time had come to unionize and attempt to improve their lives, they met with some resistance to say the least. They risked not only the very little that they had, they risked their lives in some cases to make a better life for their children and grandchildren. This is a documentary of heroes, real, day to day heroes that we might never know about under ordinary media coverage.

In this modern day, when the documentary has come into full vogue with a major force, this film still remains the finest documentary I have ever seen. More than anything else, this is, to me, a deeply American film, but I must tell you, I mean that in the same sense that Howard Zinn might say it. This is popular struggle. This is how it is done. This is not the glorious, bloody revolution, but is instead the day after day struggle for positive change with dedication, sweat, tears, two steps forward and three steps back, passionate victories, a silence, and a child sleeping sounder in the still of the night. Thankfully, Barbara Kopple dedicated her time, energy, and creativity to this masterpiece of documentary journalism and captured an important piece of populist history for humankind.

If you are new to this film, I really encourage you to watch it, you have nothing to lose and so much to gain. Watch it with your family and your children. Discuss it, think about it. These are not actors. These are people struggling for everything that they have in this world just short of their souls. If you have seen it, watch it again, for the first time, and remember what real patriotism feels, looks, and sounds like.

Growing up in that era, I was affected by all the strikes. My father was a miner, and my grandfather was killed in Ky's 2nd worst explosion in the states history, "Three Point Explosion". The movie will keep you on the edge of your seat, it is not for the faint at heart, it is as close to the truth as a movie could be, I recomend this movie with the greatest regards it is a must see for anyone who has ties to the coleminers of Ky. *M*