Harlan County, USA

Following striking miners 4 over a year in'73, this reveals a corruption that now almost borders on caricature (unless ur in an outsource country), as well as humanizing the workers' unending struggle against coporate greed 4 every 1 of the slightest benefits most of us now take 4 granted. Corporate think-tanks have completely tarnished the image of unions since73, but this is a loud reminder that any present-day distance we now enjoy from cruel & inhumane conditions would not exist w/out them

I expected little but what I didn’t expect was where a man points to a fleshy mass in the dirt: “See here, that a bit of brain right here.” The Great Documentaries are in the right place at the right time and Kopple forced her way into the right place at the right time and we’re all the better. She never hides her lack of objectivity and what is witnessed deserves her approach. The soundtrack elevates the sheer humanity on display - you want to change everything except the people involved.

Crushing poisonous Americana poverty on display. Driving through small town Kentucky on the way to fun in the sun Florida vacations was always eye opening. On a lighter note almost everyone looks like they beat their spouse.

Workers of the World Unite

Yes it's biased and sides with the miners but it's open and honest about it. Plus you'd need to be pretty retarded to not be sympathetic to entire families who have, for generations, been exploited. It's heart breaking to see these people fight an uphill battle so hard and for so long over something that is such an obvious moral outrage.

The fact that they seemed to have their cameras everywhere and little editing was done made this better, and more "real". This factor especially came into play during the standoffs and whenever they approached that guys truck. The whole movie was very informative in shedding some light on coal mining which I really have never paid attention to even though it probably affects my life more than i realize. They could have cut down on the crooning a little bit, just got annoying after awhile.

Invigorating, infuriating, sad, and altogether stirring in ways plenty and profound. The class war in America still resembles the struggle for dignity captured here. This film indefinitely remains a relevant political piece and a moving humanitarian portrait.

Really well-made and moving. It'd be cool if Americans went back to referring to companies just as "the company." It establishes an immediate understanding of what their goals are (profit) and aren't (humaneness, fairness, kindness, etc.), which is a little less obvious to people nowadays. Pretty cool also for having been directed and produced by a woman and for paying close attention to the role of women activists in the strike. And great music too!

Very good documentary. It never tries to hide the fact that it's siding with the miners, and as a result it paints an extremely one-sided picture. But that's okay, because the situation it's depicting is an extremely one-sided issue. Of course, the effectiveness of unions is a debatable question, but I don't see how anyone could come out of this movie not feeling that the miners were doing the right thing.

At turns shocking and infuriating. About as effective as a biased documentary can be, as it's pretty clear that the bias is justified.

Little did all these people know about a decade later Reagan would destroy any semblance of workers rights in America. Compared to now this is almost a great story of positivity. Just a remarkably beautiful film.

Whenever people discuss company-worker relations or business ethics, I hope they remember the reality presented in this movie: union-busters firing guns on strikers' homes or the company spokesman publically claiming coal mining doesn't cause breathing issues. The filmaking is amatuer but its heart is in the right place.

Hawley Wells Jr.: "That was when I learned my first real political lesson, about what happens when you take a position against the coal operators, against the capitalists... I found out that the union officials were working with the coal companies. I also found that the Catholic hierarchy was working with the coal companies. Here was a combination of the whole thing, you see: you had to bump against the whole combination of them."

Refreshing to watch a documentary where the story is told through editing rather than by voiceover narration.

I live in Kentucky, where this movie was filmed, very good documentry about the state.

Heart-breaking and provocative.

An excellent documentary that takes the side of human beings over and against institutions like labor unions and the government. I love the way Kopple brings in the music of these people, showing how they carry on an oral tradition from decades of miners through song.

I don't look like or speak like these people. I don't live in a town like theirs. But this is the America I'm proud to live in. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the movie was that it treated the strikers with respect. It didn't make them caricatures or "yokels". There was a kind of folksy empathy at work here that drew me in, and made me relate to these people. The, virtually unedited, standoff between the strikers and the union busters ("mediated" by the reluctant Sheriff) was incredible.

How easy it would be to poke fun at some of the people on screen, Harlan County USA humanizes them with gruff skill. Glaring poverty and great injustice are shown at the forefront with against a fascinatingly unique soundtrack.

"A lot of people don't understand that that electricity burnin' over there...takes somebody dyin' everyday for it. There's one man dies every day." So said the the Harlan Country coal miner on strike to the disbelieving police officer in New York. This is essential viewing to understand modern-day America, indeed to understand the relationship between the American individual and the powers-that-be which in many ways defines the U.S.A. It's a genuinely significant documentary film.

wow, boyz

Bunch of pissed off hillbilly's who I couldn't understand 3/4 of the time. Some cool shots though.

It's a very heartbreaking and infuriating documentary to watch. It reminds you that a lot of times, human lives seem to have very little value at the face of profits and it contrasts the raw humanity against the stone-cold faceless corporations. That scene at the funeral really struck at me, too. Just oof.

Really good documentary about the struggles of unionization, even in 70's fighting for basic rights. The documentary may seem one sided but that's only because it's pretty damn hard to side with oil companies who run company towns, use violent tactics, and have no regard for their workers' safety. It still presents both sides of the conflict and while clearly supporting the workers doesn't hide that some of their actions are wrong or misguided.

Viewed March 26, 2015. A definite addition to my list of favorite documentaries. The clarity and impact of these images cannot be understated. Firmly ingrains you into this culture in a way that is incredibly haunting and moving. The conversation between the miner and the New York City policeman is superb. I hope to make a film like this some day.

Generally, older docs don't usually do it for me, but this one's visceral look at simple people fighting for what they need to have a basic shot at a normal life is pretty damn good. Like most of the reviews mention, it does not take a neutral approach to the topic (and I feel like that would have been a terrible, easily forgotten film), but hunkers right in the trenches with the striking miners. One of the better docs on the subject of organized labor.

# 870

This is one of those time-and-place documentaries that was only meant to shed light on what was going on and not to inform or team anyone anything.

Fantastic documentary. One-sided for sure but it shows that one side very, very well. The method of presentation, no narration, very few statistics shown onscreen, keeps the viewer in the moment and on the edge of their seat. When I first saw the guns I felt more scared than I ever had in any horror movie.

It has only begun to dawn on me how long ago the 70s were at this point. In the film many older folks kept on referring back to their strikes during the 30s. The 30s is to the 70s as the 70s is to this decade. That's kinda crazy to me. We still see the 1970s every day, both materially and culturally. It's difficult to remember this, but even in the 1970s they still would have seen the 1930s every day. Clearly it informs a lot of the behaviour in this film.

A shockingly powerful depiction of industrial action and the passionate community that forms around the strike as well as the absolute mother fuckers who would dare to oppose it!!!!! Join your local union today!!!!!!!

A vivid and essential film on the hollowing out of the labor class in the US. Poverty with dignity in its death throes.

This is 44 years old and if you thought hey there's no way things could get worse for the proletariat of America/the world...Do I have a surprise for you! Still a beautiful depiction of what can happen when we as people band together and fight back against our oppressors and those that side with them(and even then they still made a lot of concessions in the contract)

Pair with the book Midnight Oil on the class nature of the '70s energy crises and the documentary American Dream on how '80s neoliberalism crushed this kind of union action once and for all.

A one-sided view to be sure, but really, how can you be AGAINST unionizing? The story is riveting and makes a good companion piece to Matewan. The film does get a bit confusing at the end, after the main strike ends and then there's apparently some additional strikes and some sort of disagreement with another organization. But that's just the last 10 minutes, the other 90 are very engrossing. I particularly enjoyed all those great union songs.

I had to cross a picket line to watch this movie.

We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.

What I learned from this movie: coal dust does not cause disease. Wait...wha? Capitalism at its finest.

The big problem here is that it's a happily -folksy even- one sided account of the matter at hand. And it becomes something akin to emotional bullying, which would be somewhat more palatable had this been a fiction work; on a documentary it should not be forgiven. Still this has plenty of virtues, chiefly among them the telling of the story without resorting to narration, and the tension accomplished through the use of montage.

Documentary about a violent coal miners strike in the '70s. They get some fantastic footage, and it really captures the greed of the companies without TOTALLY overplaying it.

Harlan County, USA is difficult for me to watch. I may not have the firsthand knowledge of coal workers and the absoluteness of the poverty involved in that job but I am from a small town that depends on a disappearing profession and I can see real life parallels between this strike and people from my own life.

Fuck the bourgeoisie.