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.

...'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".

This film is wonderful. It is horrible and sad and gripping but wonderful. I am by no means pro union, but this is a perfect example of why they need to exist as an option.

I can't believe it was so recently that companies were hiring brutal men to terrorize their workers over money.

The movie is set in Harlan County, and there is not much to say but that you are watching history unfold, with all of it's rage and fire, and bloodshed, tears and strength.

Nothing is hidden and it is very powerful. People willing to die for what they believe in, it is very eye opening. The people were real, fearless, and their struggle raw.

There are real villains here, the gun toting hired thugs, and the company who seems OK with the way things are handled. Murdering poor people over a few cents and common sense benefits. Sad.

The most poignant memory of the film for me was how they tricked a truly injured man into coming back to the work site so that they could deny him worker's comp. Quite shocking.

Barbara Kopple's 1976 documentary "Harlan County USA" remains one of the finest portraits of the struggle between faceless and greedy corporations and the employees who work themselves to the bone to eke out a living. The film deals with a coal miner's strike in a small Kentucky town during the early 70s. These seemingly insurmountable odds to strike up agreements between the company and the union in this Harlan County town dip back as far as a bloody battle there during the 1930s.

The miners and the picketers are captured via a well-maintained cinema verite style to the point that much of the early dialogue in the film is indiscernible and lingers there only as a means to introduce the tone. Music plays a key role in the emotional impact of this gritty film as well. Considering it takes place in the Bluegrass State, it comes as no surprise that so many of the most intense moments in the film carry with them a heart-wrenching rendition of roots music, most of which pertain specifically to coal mining.

"Harlan County USA" removes the presumptions that such human atrocities are far gone memories of America's past, and would pave the way for other important pro-workers rights films as "Norma Rae", "Silkwood", and "Matewan".

What this outstanding documentary shows is that the grassroots can supply their own leadership when struggling against uncaring employers. It's also a reminder of why unions were so instrumental in creating an American middle-class. As the movie shows, only militant collective action can lift working people from poverty in an economy where production is first and foremost for profit. These lessons are especially topical in our period now that wages have fallen drastically compared to productivity, and unions have been replaced by off- shoring.

Sure the documentary's one-sided since it shows the vibrant Appalachin coal-mining community struggling in the face of the coal company, strike-breakers, and law-enforcement allies. After all, I guess competing footage would have to be from a company executive session where profits and power are discussed, not indoor plumbing and a living wage. Clearly, the topic sorts itself for the average viewer.

Then there're the faces. You don't get life in the raw like this from a casting call on Hollywood and Vine. The men and women are indelible and a permanent record of the nation's real fabric. True, I don't have much ear for the down-home music that's such a strong narrative part, but I do have a new appreciation for what the artistry stands for. Thanks Barbara Koppel for going where movie-makers seldom go, and recording what many of us seldom see. Sure, that's been 40-years ago, but I dare say the lessons are as topical now as they were then. Maybe more so.