Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
Directed by: Barbara
Kopple.
It’s
fascinating to look back at Barbara Kopple’s Harland County U.S.A. from 1976
throw 2019 eyes. The film documents the yearlong miner’s strike in Harlan
County, Kentucky, where coal miners unionized and tried to get a fair contract
from the Duke Power Company, and were met with nothing but resistance – scabs
coming in to take their jobs, a Sheriff and police department who claimed to be
neutral, but were clearly more favorable to the company, and gun thugs – men
hired by the company, who carried guns they used to threaten – and sometime
more – the miners, and their wives, who were out their fighting. Over four
decades later of course, coal is a dying industry – and Kentucky is the height
of Trump country. Back then, it was a company town – and a Union Town, and
while the politic leanings have shifted – the complaints are basically the same
– the rich have their foot on the necks of the working man, trying to back as
much as possible off of them, without caring about them in the least.
This was
Kopple’s first film as a director – and won her the first of two Documentary
Oscars. She started out looking to make a documentary about the race for Union
Leadership – which ends up playing out here in about 10 minutes, and certainly
is fascinating as it ends up with one candidate murdered, and the other in jail
for hiring men to do it. But when she took a detour to Harlan County for
background, she simply stayed put – and filmed everything she saw. She gets the
type of access most documentary filmmakers can only dream of – and earned, by
being there day-in, day-out – and going right alongside the picketers every
day. So when the gun thugs threaten – and even fire – on the miners, they are
threatening and firing on Kopple as well.
Some have
argued that the film is one sided – that it doesn’t show the companies side, in
anything other than news conferences, etc., and while that’s true – it’s also
true that if the company wanted her to have more access, they would have given
it to her, and they didn’t. And besides, even in those news conferences – when
the company is supposedly trying to get the public on their side, they don’t
sound too sympathetic. They argue that there is no conclusive proof that
breathing in all that coal dust harms the miners. They admit that the houses
they have provided the workers don’t have running water – but that they are
looking at upgrading them. And they hired those guns’ thugs, didn’t they?
Kopple didn’t have access to the company side – but I doubt it would change
much if she did.
The film
is fascinating in another way – in the way that it shows that it was the women
– the wives of the miners – who really took the lead in the strike. They are
the most vocal against the police and the gun thugs, they are doing all the
planning of where and when to picket. They are more willing to get arrested for
picketing illegally. The film features some older voices – voices who remember
the last time they had a strike this long, this contentious in the 1930s. That
strike turned violent – and the company keeps insisting this one won’t, as if
it hasn’t already.
It is
probable that most of the people depicted in the are dead by now – Kopple
isn’t, but she was young when she made the film, and after all, didn’t have to
work in a coal mine for decades. I cannot help but wonder though what they
would think of the situation today. Today, coal mining is all but dead in
America – despite Trump’s best efforts to bring it back, the truth is there are
cleaner, cheaper ways to get power – and besides, they’ve already dug up so
much of the coal. Coal isn’t coming back – and it kind of looks like the
company won, even if the movie ends with a contract (although one that only
came about when one striker was killed by one of those gun thugs – who course
didn’t go to jail). They got these men to go into those mines, at great cost to
themselves, and bled them dry, making money off of their labor, without the
horrible health risks. You can see roots to the anti-Union movement in the film
– a few of the scabs and members of the community complain about how it will affect
prices if the men are paid what they want. It has, of course, only become worse
over time. It’s one of the reasons why – all these decades later – Harlan
County USA remains one of the best documentaries ever made.
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