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Editorial Reviews
Workingman's Death is an unflinching portrait of the state of manual labor in the 21st century. In the Ukraine, a group of men spend long days crawling through cramped shafts of illegal coal mines. Sulfur gatherers in Indonesia brave smoky heat of an active volcano and the treacherous trip back down. Blood, fire and stench are routines for workers at a crowded open-air Slaughterhouse in Nigeria. Pakistani men use little more than their bare hands to dismantle an abandoned oil tanker for scrap metal. Steelworkers in China fear they could be a dying breed.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Michael Glawogger is an interesting film documentarian, and this film
from 2005 is perhaps the easiest one of his films to obtain in a
DVD format which plays in North America. This is about manual laborers
in 4 different settings around the world. There is only minimal narration
and interviewing; most of the film speaks to the viewer simply by seeing
the scenes and listening to the sounds of the people at work. Of course
it's not easy work, which is why he found it interesting.
He picked 4 settings, and each one begins with a one-word title.
"Heroes" depicts a small group of men mining a coal seam in the Ukraine.
Not a big commercial mining operation--no, the seam is too thin to be
viable as a large operation. They crawl in and out--actually even crawling
is generous; almost the entire time they are inside the mine, they are
wriggling around lying flat, as there isn't even enough room to crawl.
The coal is enough to provide fuel for a few families, and some left over to
sell for food and other necessities.
The second section is called "Ghosts" and is about sulfur mining on a semi-dormant
volcano in Indonesia. Small, wiry men carrying up to 200 lbs of sulfur down slippery,
muddy, razorback foot trails from the upper volcano to a buyer down below.
Section three, "Lions", is about a large, open-air butchering operation in Nigeria.
I had to skip this section as it is very graphic depicting animals of various kinds
getting slaughtered and trimmed for sale.
The final section, "Brothers", is about men who work at a port in Pakistan, dismantling
old ships to be sold as scrap iron. Generally, LARGE old ships. In some ways I found
this last section the most interesting of all, and a suitable conclusion.
Glawogger does not appear to be making any particular political, economic or environmental
statement with his film. At least, he does not do so overtly, leaving the viewer to
ponder your own opinions on what he has recorded. I found the film fascinating (skipping
"Lions" anyhow), and hope I can view his other documentaries as well.
from 2005 is perhaps the easiest one of his films to obtain in a
DVD format which plays in North America. This is about manual laborers
in 4 different settings around the world. There is only minimal narration
and interviewing; most of the film speaks to the viewer simply by seeing
the scenes and listening to the sounds of the people at work. Of course
it's not easy work, which is why he found it interesting.
He picked 4 settings, and each one begins with a one-word title.
"Heroes" depicts a small group of men mining a coal seam in the Ukraine.
Not a big commercial mining operation--no, the seam is too thin to be
viable as a large operation. They crawl in and out--actually even crawling
is generous; almost the entire time they are inside the mine, they are
wriggling around lying flat, as there isn't even enough room to crawl.
The coal is enough to provide fuel for a few families, and some left over to
sell for food and other necessities.
The second section is called "Ghosts" and is about sulfur mining on a semi-dormant
volcano in Indonesia. Small, wiry men carrying up to 200 lbs of sulfur down slippery,
muddy, razorback foot trails from the upper volcano to a buyer down below.
Section three, "Lions", is about a large, open-air butchering operation in Nigeria.
I had to skip this section as it is very graphic depicting animals of various kinds
getting slaughtered and trimmed for sale.
The final section, "Brothers", is about men who work at a port in Pakistan, dismantling
old ships to be sold as scrap iron. Generally, LARGE old ships. In some ways I found
this last section the most interesting of all, and a suitable conclusion.
Glawogger does not appear to be making any particular political, economic or environmental
statement with his film. At least, he does not do so overtly, leaving the viewer to
ponder your own opinions on what he has recorded. I found the film fascinating (skipping
"Lions" anyhow), and hope I can view his other documentaries as well.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Robert Cogan
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
THis is an extraordinary documentary. Anyone who views it wioll learn the extremity that some poor people in monetary economies have to go to to eke out a living.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Found it fascinating that even with the extraordinarily challenging lives these people live they still rise to a human formality I.e. Serving tea to one another; various forms of grooming for their own appearance and for the purpose of how others perceive them etc
