Product Details

• Actors: Holly Hunter, Stellan Skarsgård, Ted Levine, Wayne Robson, Alex House
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Showtime Ent.
• DVD Release Date: August 7, 2001
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005KA73
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,726 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Harlan County War" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/21/2007 Run time: 104 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True Story - UNtrue Details, November 7, 2001

By 

Steve Olshewsky (Where Else?) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harlan County War (DVD)

Top rating deserved for subject matter and positive portrayal of unsung heroes, but falls short of hitting pure excellence in lack of research and failure to film in Kentucky. Holly Hunter would have won the Golden Globe if she had been allowed to spend any time in Kentucky before filming. The many Emmy nominations suggest true grandeur if the movie had actually been about the intended subject matter instead of Tony Bill deciding what he thought had happened.

The time line, scenery, and vocabulary were the most disturbing errors.

If they had gone to the actual place, they would have known that it does not take long for the women to get riled, and they take up sticks much faster than suggested. There are still laws on the books that compare the danger of a Kentucky woman with a stick versus two men with guns. Also, the incident of people walking up to each other and shooting them dead without comment was ridiculously downplayed. There was and is much more "just as soon shoot ya as look at ya" going on, and these are men of action not words.

Most painful was when Hunter looks out and comments that she has seen the same "mountains" all her life (and has only been to Lexington once). The scene shows a Canadian scene completely foreign to Kentucky instead of the Appalachians that are unusually beautiful in those parts. Everyone knows they are "hills" and that is what they are called. Lexington is referred to as the city, and young girls get out that way more often than once per lifetime. When a Kentucky woman looks out her kitchen window and says "its like heaven come right down to earth," it is obvious why she never wanted to be anyplace else, and that is what the movie lacks.

Other strange points include the presentation of hog brains as a delicacy. Maybe squirrel brains, but on the hog, the common thing would be the Rocky Mountain Oysters. Also, the repeated reference to "moon shine" although it is called white lightening or mountain dew (moon shining is bootlegging, and has a different connotation). The most ridiculous is when the one wife says her cover for sneaking out is to borrow some "pinto beans" from Hunter, but a pinto is a horse. I mean, everyone knows what "soup beans" are, but I do not think anyone ever heard the word pinto used to describe a bean in Kentucky. The director allowed several similar word choices that would have been corrected by having ever been there.

The movie has a wise old relative come up from Knoxville to remind the women that they used to call it Bloody Harlan. HELLO, Bloody Harlan & Bloody Breathitt, two of the four counties that never had to draft a man because they signed up 100% to go kill the enemy and still trade number one positions as the highest per capita murder rates in the nation. If the director had ever been there, he woulda knowed that.

Other than that, the movie was first rate. Whatever money was saved by filming in Toronto, would have been recouped by actually filming in Harlan.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Harlan KY, January 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Harlan County War [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I am from Harlan County KY, and I actually liked this movie. I think Holly Hunter did an excellent job! My father worked at Brookside, as well as my husband, only now the company is Manalapan. Coal miners and their families do have a tough life, then and now, I think the movie portrayed that very well.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Realistic Portrayal, March 30, 2006

By 

Warren W. Carter (Gallatin, Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harlan County War (DVD)

My grand father and and uncles worked in the coal mines of Harlan County Kentucky. Black Mountain, Red Bud, Shields, Highsplint, Evarts, Loyal, Brookside, Baxter, and Insull mines. They lived hard and difficult lives.

I am 52 years old and can remember visiting them as a child when they lived in the coal mine camp housing. The mining companies owned everything including the grocery store. Tennessee Ernie Ford said it in his song, "16 Tons". "I owe my soul to the company store."

My grand father suffered from black lung. Two of my uncles lost thier lives from a cave in while working in the coal mines. This movie hits the nail on the head. It is actually toned down from the real bloodshed those people faced at Brookside, Ky..

Holly Hunter's acting and accent is so believable. This movie should have been awarded an Oscar for best picture. It's a must have for every DVD library.