Harlan County: Tragédia Americana

The clarity and portrayal in Harlan County of the hideous strikes makes the audience feel involved. Surrounded by beautiful nature and hollows, poverty and living conditions flip the picture. In this particular film by Barbara Kopple, her crew follows around the coal miners and their families around the clock. There is not anytime of day where a song is being sung or gun shots are being fired not caught on camera. Kopple's depiction of women and use of sound makes this documentary distinct for its time. In the mid 60's, civil rights and liberties was a huge issue. Eventually the Civil Rights Act of 1963 was passed and America was slowly evolving into a new nation. During the strikes in Harlan Country, women played a big role to help and on screen. Kopple dedicated a good amount of footage to the emergence of women taking a stand and being strong. Around the time of this strike, women were not portrayed as they were on screen thorough the documentary. In one particular picket stand, a car was rolled in the middle of a main road surrounded by women protesting. The sheriff told them repeatedly to clear the road, but they did not move an inch. The women organization during the strike did not become vulnerable once presenting a new image. By the camera shooting close-ups of women's faces during their meetings and protests, the audience can really feel the power and anger they had alone. As the documentary unfolds, the use of music played a major role. Through out the whole presentation, the songs heard described key events that took place during the strike. When studies were shown how black dust from coal kills your lungs, many small scenes showed the coal miners having trouble breathing. During this segment, a depressing song about black dust accompanied each powerful image. Many involved during these hard times composed songs of their feelings and emotions which Kopple caught on screen and included in many shots. The documentary starts the film with an elderly man singing a slow depressing song setting the harsh tone. By the end of the documentary, songs of victory and happiness accompany the images. Including the songs throughout the whole film gave the images more to express to the audience through the journey. Kopple's documentary gives viewers a front row seat of the horrible atrocities during the Harlan County strike. The camera can only speak so many words. Approaching this event as a documentary including powerful music makes the camera and film process complete.

Thank you Ms. Kopple for your courage and resolve to show the world the struggle of a brave group of men and women who were willing to lay down their lives for what they believed. I am an ex-coal miner from Harlan County and I remember the Brookside strike vividly. You portrayed the sorrow and joy of these courageous families. When I was watching the documentary I was shocked to see a portion where union miners were at the bridge attempting to stop the scabs from crossing the bridge and going to work. I was one of those men who wanted to stand with their union brothers against the tyranny of the coal operators. This was the only time I was arrested in my entire life but the union organizer made sure we never spent one second behind bars. This gripping documentary brings back wonderful memories of a time in my life when I joined myself to a group of people I didn't know for a common cause. There is something refreshing about fighting for what you dearly believe in and you brought the struggle of many to light for the whole world to see. I only wish you had your camera with me when the state troopers roughed me up before putting me in the back seat of one of the cruisers. At this point I feared for my life because all of my union brothers were at the bridge and I was surrounded by scabs waiting for the bridge to clear so they could go to work. All previous comments were very touching to read from one who lived during those days and was involved almost daily manning the picket line for our union brothers. Peace!

...'cause there's one man dead on the Harlan County line'.

This is a powerful Oscar-winning documentary produced and directed by Barbara Kopple ('American Dream', 'Wild Man Blues'). It focuses on the men at the Brookside Mine in Harlan, Kentucky who, in the summer of 1973, voted to join the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). Duke Power Company and its subsidiary, Eastover Mining Company, refused to sign the contract. The miners came out on a long strike, registered by Kopple with testimonies, backstories, archival footage, and music, particularly that of Hazel Dickens during the final credits.

The film's main strength resides in the sincerity of its emotional, political and sociological core without being overtly sentimental, and Kopple's way of testifying instead of exploiting the subjects. The miners and their wives are not depicted in old hillbilly stereotypes, but rather as hard-working human beings fighting for their basic rights ('together we stand, divided we fall').

Thirty years after the release of this documentary, five miners died in an explosion at Harlan County. When the film was shot, money was the bigger issue (industry profits rose 170% in 1975, but miner's wages rose only 4%); nowadays, however, safety is an even bigger issue. You'd think things would have been largely improved since then, but that's not really the case. 'Harlan County U.S.A.' is a remarkable documentary because it testifies and proposes solutions about a public struggle that shouldn't be overlooked, yet has been for such a long time, in the "land of the free and home of the brave".

Dirt roads, no plumbing, wages lower than the standard living condition rates, abused mentally and physically by a large monopolistic corporation, and a lack of a full education are all factors that led to the strike of the minors in Harlan County. A county that time as well as the nation forgot. A county that did not progressed on beyond the persecution and disgraceful treatment of the 1930's proletariat. A county where the average man lived in constant fear that there would not be a constant and or adequate income; where the only way to see change was to unite and to revolt by any means to force people to see the intolerable conditions that they live in.

This documentary was filmed over a period of 4 years which in turn showed the lack of speed for a change from a peon work ethic to one of equality. The men of the mine saw the results that a union in other parts of the country and the standard of living that most Americans enjoyed as compared to their own situation. The community of Harlan County had a desire for change from an almost forced labor to one where the worker could make choices, have health care and to not live from pay check to pay check. The men and the woman were willing to risk everything for a better future for their children. The wives of the minors not only lived in the same conditions but had the same drive for changes and a difference. The women not only increased the numbers for picket lines but they also brought the importance of the strike to an `at home' feel. The rough terrain, harsh living community, and dirty, dingy way of life that a miner and a miner's family lived in was adequately represented in the film via the raw nature of the interviews and the in the field live spontaneous coverage. You as the viewer did not sit back and watch the film but instead were brought in to the lives of these men and woman. The filming brought a sense to the audience that you were there on the picket line, you felt the terror of being attacked, and you experienced the chaos when shots were fired at unarmed citizens. The falling of the camera and the blackness of the shot exemplifies the nature of not understanding what was going on at that moment. This in your face type of filming also show all aspects of what a strike of this nature entails. The viewer saw the aftermath and hospitalization of the battles between unarmed men and the `gun -thugs' sent to end picket lines. Like Bordwall and Thompson state the film crew used was small and more mobile, this not only rejected the traditional ideals of script and structure but also allowed the film makers to almost disappear into the back ground and let the action unfold in font of their eyes. This form of filming were there is a no holds bar or in your face tactic shows all portions of the incident, meaning that there is a feeling that the camera was never turned off. It brought light to a subject that most would not have known about, a subject that it profoundly influenced. The press that such documentaries bring to these hidden incidents carries a strong level of change and importance that otherwise would not be there. The filming of these events is intense. The film must express the telling of a complete story, one that ties the events that previously unfolded through the elapsed filming time to a coherent ending, being it either good or bad. The documentary film is a modern day form of passing on a lesson or an experience to a new audience, the modern day word of mouth story telling.

Harlan County USA (1976) ****

I used to consider Gates of Heaven and Harlan County USA as in deadlock for the best documentary ever made, but upon watching Harlan County USA again and all the extras available on the Criterion DVD, I have no choice but to move it into the sole number One position. The sense of dread and danger of Harlan County USA elevates it to a whole new level, making it perhaps the most watchable documentary ever made as well - its tense subject matter and the incredible footage captured by Kopple and her crew make it play as a feature film. Kopple's intimate participatory style makes the film even more poignant. The film crew was there with the strikers, amidst the bullets and beatings, at one point being singled out for attack and were beaten by the mining company militants. That they were there meant that they got some absolutely incredible footage, such as the scene described above, and when they catch the main strike breaker pointing his gun at them on film.

Harlan County USA is also an important social document, now housed in the national film registry for preservation. Scenes such as children being washed in buckets, in the 1970s, in the "beacon of freedom and democracy" The United States of America, really get beyond the rhetoric and show how the government and the big business agenda often trumps the rights of workers - its about maximizing profits not lives.

4/4