Füge eine Handlung in deiner Sprache hinzuA labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community in 1920 West Virginia, brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.A labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community in 1920 West Virginia, brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.A labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community in 1920 West Virginia, brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.
- Für 1 Oscar nominiert
- 3 Gewinne & 8 Nominierungen insgesamt
- Ellix
- (as Michael Preston)
Handlung
WUSSTEST DU SCHON:
- WissenswertesDebut feature film of actor Chris Cooper.
- PatzerLook for the sheriff to remove a gun from someone's hand (by holding the gun by the barrel) after it's been fired four or five times.
- Zitate
Joe Kenehan: You think this man is the enemy? Huh? This is a worker! Any union keeps this man out ain't a union, it's a goddam club! They got you fightin' white against colored, native against foreign, hollow against hollow, when you know there ain't but two sides in this world - them that work and them that don't. You work, they don't. That's all you get to know about the enemy.
The conditions these workers faced were brutal. Miners had to pay for all their own equipment, their housing was owned by the mining company and they also paid for it, workers were also paid in credits which they could only use at the mining company store. Workers who went strike were subsequently evicted from their homes.
This movie is great. It's a page from history which should be told much more often. James Earl Jones is terrific as a black miner who is signed up as a scab but he's actually a union sympathizer who encourages the black scabs to strike with the West Virginia workers.
Chris Cooper is also great as a union organizer. I think he's a highly underrated actor. He was very good in American Beauty as the hick next door neighbor and he's great in Matewan as well. Proof, I believe that he can really take on any role.
Bob Gunton is also a great actor. This movie was made long before he was playing every two bit villain of the week. I think that was due to his role as the warden in The Shawshank Redemption where he just let it all out.
I liked one scene in particular early in the film where the union men on strike try to weed out Cooper by finding out how much he knows about union history. Where was Joe Hill buried? In which eye was Big Bill Haywood blind in? Cooper also quips, "I was a Wobbly, back when that meant something" But he does support the notion of One Big Union. The IWW will rise again!
- GethinVanH
- 6. Juli 2009
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Details
Box Office
- Budget
- 4.000.000 $ (geschätzt)
- Bruttoertrag in den USA und Kanada
- 1.680.358 $
- Eröffnungswochenende in den USA und in Kanada
- 23.850 $
- 30. Aug. 1987
- Weltweiter Bruttoertrag
- 1.680.358 $