The film melds history and drama with pathos and even humor; a scene where strikers go to New York City, and one of them gets schooled in how poorly they have it by a New York flatfoot, is priceless. Even Kopple, in the commentary, admits she was floored with laughter when she first saw the footage. The lives of the miners- then without hot running water, and living in shanties that would make a trailer look comfy- are deplorable, yet the Duke Power honchos only give in after one of their gun thugs kills a young miner, Lawrence Jones, and the strikers are ready to kill any scab that crosses their picket line. And, the film takes on not only the owners of Duke Power, but the corrupt sheriff and judge of the county, who are in the back pocket of the company. One of the young wives of the strikers, in court for a phony violation, correctly sums up American justice there and then (as well as too often elsewhere and elsewhen): 'The laws are not made for the working people of this country.'
But, while such uncomplicated realities are laid bare in this film, its greatness comes because the film refuses to simplify things to a lowest common denominator. The Brookside strikers' contract is soon made redundant by a national contract, and that contract is reviled by some miners and praised by others. The new leader of the UMWA, Arnold Miller- a real miner, not just a union hack, is shown as a possible sellout; while not as corrupt as his predecessor Boyle, he seems on his way down that path; or not.
Harlan County, USA, is not only a great documentary, but a great film. Period. It was well deserving of its Academy Award, as well as its 1990 inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. While art is clearly not truth, documentaries are the rare art form where truth is essential, because it is not merely cinema, but a journalistic art. The film also holds up for it is shorn or much of the faux poesy that inflicts bad documentaries. This is just 'point the camera' cinema, and the fact that it features poor people who are Americans- not foreigners, and mostly white- not minorities, is a rarity, and shows that this film not only can strike one emotionally (it raised my ire), but intellectually. And its end, recognizing that, although the miners won their strikes, their struggles go on (few miners could then afford to retire when most folk do), is pitch perfect. Unfortunately, that reality shows why the film is, in today's economic blight, is still all too relevant. Ironically, it only manifests the vision that Kopple had all those decades ago. Excelsior!
But, while such uncomplicated realities are laid bare in this film, its greatness comes because the film refuses to simplify things to a lowest common denominator. The Brookside strikers' contract is soon made redundant by a national contract, and that contract is reviled by some miners and praised by others. The new leader of the UMWA, Arnold Miller- a real miner, not just a union hack, is shown as a possible sellout; while not as corrupt as his predecessor Boyle, he seems on his way down that path; or not.
Harlan County, USA, is not only a great documentary, but a great film. Period. It was well deserving of its Academy Award, as well as its 1990 inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. While art is clearly not truth, documentaries are the rare art form where truth is essential, because it is not merely cinema, but a journalistic art. The film also holds up for it is shorn or much of the faux poesy that inflicts bad documentaries. This is just 'point the camera' cinema, and the fact that it features poor people who are Americans- not foreigners, and mostly white- not minorities, is a rarity, and shows that this film not only can strike one emotionally (it raised my ire), but intellectually. And its end, recognizing that, although the miners won their strikes, their struggles go on (few miners could then afford to retire when most folk do), is pitch perfect. Unfortunately, that reality shows why the film is, in today's economic blight, is still all too relevant. Ironically, it only manifests the vision that Kopple had all those decades ago. Excelsior!