The recent mining accident not only underscores the dangers of mining, but what happens when the government is aligned with the mining companies against the workers (specifically, Bush is probably the most rabidly anti-labor president in history; at least in the last eighty years). "Matewan" shows these sorts of things in the early 20th century, when miners led by Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) went on strike against a mining company in West Virginia. It shows how the company tries to hire blacks and immigrants as scabs, so as to "divide and conquer", but the miners get the scabs to join the union; the mining company then goes into attack mode. All in all, this is a great look at a battle that continues to this day, and it affirms John Sayles as probably the greatest director alive today. As Howard Zinn once noted: "The history of the United States is a history of labor struggles."
Review of Matewan
