Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastover's refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.
Harlan County U.S.A. is a landmark of observational documentary filmmaking. Its plot — the sustained, dangerous chronicling of a year-long coal miners' strike with genuine tension, violence, and historical depth — is exceptional, placing it among the finest social-issue documentaries ever made. Novelty is high: Kopple's immersive, fearless on-the-ground presence, embedding herself among striking miners and their families with a rawness and intimacy rarely matched, gives the film a singular voice and urgency. The cinematography is competent and at times gripping given the guerrilla conditions, but the handheld vérité style, while appropriate, is not visually transcendent. Acting is not applicable in the traditional sense — the subjects are real people performing no roles — and their authenticity is compelling but uneven in screen presence. The ending, while emotionally satisfying in documenting the strike's resolution, is somewhat abrupt and doesn't fully resolve the broader systemic critique the film raises, keeping it from the highest tier.