Appalachia literally is being destroyed, forever, by Big Coal through the use of mountain top mining – the most economical and profitable (for the Coal Companies), and most horrendously environmentally destructive of the various methods available for extracting coal from the earth.
The film is beautifully shot and has a cast of compelling characters – from the few local die-hards who refuse to leave their homes in the wake of the on-going destruction, to Robert Kennedy, Jr. who comes to the area to lend his long-term support as an environmental lawyer/activist and Public Icon, to the smooth-talking Big Coal PR Rep who appears in the film to give the Companies' line, to the shadowy, Big Brother-like figure of Don Blankenship, the then-head of Massey Coal, the largest strip-mining company in the country.
The film makes two especially vital points (among many others): everyone in this country gets some electricity from coal, and coal mining is literally obliterating, forever, an entire ecosystem here in the United States.
The film is beautifully shot and has a cast of compelling characters – from the few local die-hards who refuse to leave their homes in the wake of the on-going destruction, to Robert Kennedy, Jr. who comes to the area to lend his long-term support as an environmental lawyer/activist and Public Icon, to the smooth-talking Big Coal PR Rep who appears in the film to give the Companies' line, to the shadowy, Big Brother-like figure of Don Blankenship, the then-head of Massey Coal, the largest strip-mining company in the country.
The film makes two especially vital points (among many others): everyone in this country gets some electricity from coal, and coal mining is literally obliterating, forever, an entire ecosystem here in the United States.