"Harlan County, USA" - IFC at 1:30am ET - No way to watch this without choking up a bit.

[Bozita]

Viewers of ABC's World News and Nightline will appreciate this timely showing.


Here's a review from Amazon:


Most Helpful Customer Reviews


44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
One of the best documentaries I've ever viewed..., December 11, 2001
By Rosemary Thornton "The Houses That Sears Built" (Norfolk, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harlan County Usa (VHS Tape)
When I told the librarian I wanted to see a video on coal mining, she handed me "Harlan County." I looked at the date - which indicated that the coal miners' strike featured in the movie took place in the early 1970s and I handed it back to her saying, "No, I'm interested in something with more history in it."
A few days later, I felt impelled to return to the library and get this VHS. I sat down to watch it one morning and could not turn it off. It's compelling, intriguing, educational and emotional. I cried several times, watching the struggle and learning more and more about a coal miner's life.

For the last few months, I've been doing research (in preparation for a book on Sears Homes) about Standard Oil's coal mines in Macoupin County, Illinois in the 1920s. "Harlan County" showed archival footage and presented information that showed what a miner's life looked like - through the ages. Duke Power's coal mines in Harlan County, Kentucky were so backwards and Standard Oil's coal mines in Macoupin County, Illinois were so progressive, that I learned more than I ever expected about early 1900s mining techniques.

The story about the man and the mules is something I'll never ever forget. Or the miner's conversation with the New York policeman. Thank God for the director Ms. Koppel, who was inspired to create this documentary! And for her having the wisdom and foresight to record these old miners' reminiscences of life in the coal mines in the early years of the 20th Century.

Suddenly, all the puzzle pieces from my months of book reading and research came together when I saw these old films and heard the miners talk.

I'll be watching it again and again - with my family, too. And I hope every person who uses electricity in this country will watch it, too.

An interesting aside - in the 1920s in Macoupin County, Illinois, one coal miner died (on average) for every 279,000 tons of coal that was mined. Between 1900-1969, 100,000 miners died in this country. Standard Oil's mines (operated from 1918-1925) in Macoupin County may have been the safest mines in the country, but several men died in those mines, too.

In 1918, Standard Oil of Indiana built 192 Sears Modern Homes for their (mostly immigrant) miners in Macoupin County. (The term "Modern Homes" simply meant that the houses had kitchens, bathrooms, running water, central heat and electricity.)

In 1973, Duke Power's miners in Harlan County were still living in shacks with no running water.

Rose Thornton

more reviews at:
http://www.amazon.com/Harlan-County-U-S-Criterion-Collection/dp/B000E5LEVU

[Kool Kitty]

1. Thanks. I'm turning it on now.

[Shakespeare]

2. These are the same filmmakers who later gave us "Shut Up And Sing."

Very talented women, very wise and caring women.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. That is such a sad story.

And the GOP want everyone to ignore it.

The GOP want people to forget what unions have given this country.

But, I always point them to this.

It can be better in America, it must be better, but it's worse in a country with no union protections.

[Kool Kitty]

5. And it never seems to change for the miners.

Regulations are never enforced, it's tragic.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Unenforced regulations is a reflection of poor management...

...an industry with no regulation is a failure of government.

An industry with no unions is a failure of the citizenry.

IMHO.

[Kool Kitty]

7. That's right.

And it's wrong. It's criminal.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Oh, I don't agree with the way things are...

...I'm just sayin'.

[pnorman]

4. I had that VHS tape,

and i recently upgraded it DVD, allowing me to give the tape to my next door apartment neighbor. These items are really affordable if you shop around on the internet, and I've built up quite a nice collection of labor-related films (among other topics).

I had looking for over a year, for Zola's "Germinal" in NTSC format (about a French coal miners strike). Just recently, I found it at Amazon. It wasn't available yet in DVD, so I got the VHS (2 tapes) instead. Here's the Amazon write-up: http://www.amazon.com/Germinal-Miou-Miou/dp/6303269370/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=video&qid=1207633655&sr=8-2

pnorman

[riverdeep]

8. I love this movie.

Incredible film. All of the things we take for granted in the workplace, people DIED for. No one gave them anything like Libertarianism of Milton Freedmanism or whatever -ism says they'd eventually get if they could prove their worth.

In my early days I worked factory/industrial jobs, and who knows-may do so again, and a lot of the people were like this. Not too informed on larger world issues, but street smart about what to do in their own sphere. People risking getting shot to go on the picket line. People getting their homes shot up at night. That's what you did when the only job was coalmining. White collars forget this stuff too easily.

[nosmokes]

10. A Very Powerful Film.And yeah, while it chokes me up, it also makes my

blood boil at how little progress we have really made on the labor front. This was a 1973 strike, forty years or so after the the strike in the thirties the elders keep referring to, and here we are in '08 and the plight of the working class is just as sad as it ever was. And it ain't getting any better in the foreseeable future.

[Adsos Letter]

11. I just finished an anthology on oral history by Alessandro Portelli...

...he did a lot of oral history work in Harlan County, and wrote about it in "The Death of Luigi Trastulli: Form and Content in Oral History" It is a great book, and several of the essays are based on oral narratives from coal miners and their families.

One of our Emeritus professors of sociology at SSU, Dave Walls, lived in Harlan County and did a bunch of work there with VISTA and the Appalachian Volunteers.

Give Portelli's book a read if you get the chance.