Harlan County, U.S.A. - Criterion Collection
starring: Norman Yarborough, Houston Elmore, Phil Sparks, John Corcoran, John O'Leary
directed by: Barbara Kopple
directed by: Barbara Kopple
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Product Description:
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County Kentucky in June 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA.DVD Features:New restored high-definition digital transfer supervised by director-producer Barbara Kopple Audio commentary by Kopple and editor Nancy Baker "The Making of Harlan County USA" a new documentary featuring interviews with Kopple crew members and strike participants featured in the film New video interview with legendary bluegrass singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens Never-before-seen outtakes from the film New video interview with director John Sayles A panel discussion from 2005 Sundance featuring Kopple and Roger Ebert New essays by film scholar Paul Arthur and music journalist Jon Weisberger Original theatrical trailer System Requirements:Running Time 103 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: PG UPC: 037429208328 Manufacturer No: HAR120DVD
Amazon.com essential video:
A man crouches and pokes at what first appears to be a wad of chewed-up pink bubble gum on the ground. "That's what a scab will do to ya, by God," he says, his voice quavering with emotion. The pink wad is brain tissue from a striker shot in the head by a strikebreaker. That's one of the harsh realities of Harlan County USA. Barbara Kopple's documentary camera looks at this forgotten corner of 1970s America, the site of some of the bitterest labor violence in American history. It's hard to believe that some 40 years after the Depression, there were parts of Appalachia that were hardly better off than they were in the 1930s. The care-worn faces of the miners and their families speak volumes. They're the tough, proud faces of people struggling to make a living the way that their parents and grandparents did in generations past. Kopple skillfully weaves archival footage and traditional labor songs through the film to give a historical perspective to the strike against Eastover Mining Company. Above and beyond the labor issues, the film takes a hard look at the living conditions, health issues, and poverty faced by Harlan's residents, the human toll that goes along with the mining industry. The tense confrontations between Eastover's slimy security goons and the unionizers are particularly gripping, with the threat of violence hanging thick in the air. Sometimes ugly, always absorbing, this is an important, enlightening social record, one that serves the highest calling of the documentary filmmaker's art. --Jerry Renshaw
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County Kentucky in June 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA.DVD Features:New restored high-definition digital transfer supervised by director-producer Barbara Kopple Audio commentary by Kopple and editor Nancy Baker "The Making of Harlan County USA" a new documentary featuring interviews with Kopple crew members and strike participants featured in the film New video interview with legendary bluegrass singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens Never-before-seen outtakes from the film New video interview with director John Sayles A panel discussion from 2005 Sundance featuring Kopple and Roger Ebert New essays by film scholar Paul Arthur and music journalist Jon Weisberger Original theatrical trailer System Requirements:Running Time 103 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: PG UPC: 037429208328 Manufacturer No: HAR120DVD
Amazon.com essential video:
A man crouches and pokes at what first appears to be a wad of chewed-up pink bubble gum on the ground. "That's what a scab will do to ya, by God," he says, his voice quavering with emotion. The pink wad is brain tissue from a striker shot in the head by a strikebreaker. That's one of the harsh realities of Harlan County USA. Barbara Kopple's documentary camera looks at this forgotten corner of 1970s America, the site of some of the bitterest labor violence in American history. It's hard to believe that some 40 years after the Depression, there were parts of Appalachia that were hardly better off than they were in the 1930s. The care-worn faces of the miners and their families speak volumes. They're the tough, proud faces of people struggling to make a living the way that their parents and grandparents did in generations past. Kopple skillfully weaves archival footage and traditional labor songs through the film to give a historical perspective to the strike against Eastover Mining Company. Above and beyond the labor issues, the film takes a hard look at the living conditions, health issues, and poverty faced by Harlan's residents, the human toll that goes along with the mining industry. The tense confrontations between Eastover's slimy security goons and the unionizers are particularly gripping, with the threat of violence hanging thick in the air. Sometimes ugly, always absorbing, this is an important, enlightening social record, one that serves the highest calling of the documentary filmmaker's art. --Jerry Renshaw
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- HardLuck County, USA
I remembered this film winning the Oscar for Best Ducumentary back in the 1970's.I remember really wanting to see it but, especially back then, it was pretty hard to come across documentaries on TV (forget about movie theaters).Thus it was with great pleasure that I noticed it on the April schedule of the Independent Film Channel.My politics have changed over the years so I haven't rushed out to join a union or volunteer to parade in a pickett line after watching "Harlan County, USA".However, ... Read More
Rating: - Very well done Doc
This is one of the best done documentiers I have seen in some time, it gets to the hart of the ppl right off the start and keeps the viewer in pace with the situation and the times.
Highly recommended for personal or education use.
Rating: - Where are people of this courage today?
When I saw this documentary it confirmed what Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States 1492 - the Present" talked about regarding the hard fought victories of early unionism in America.I was grabbed by the throat emotionally by this documentary and its grip did not stop with the end of the film.Union members literally get beaten, shot, disrespected, and dismissed by the mine owners and their goon squads.
What impresses me most is the courage of these miners, their wives ... Read More
Rating: - Harlan County, U.S.A
I was born in Harlan County but escaped to spend a career in the US Air Force.When this strike happened I was overseas and the event escaped my notice until just now.I do remember the absolute poverty of the coal camps but they were no worse than lumber camps or the homes of many who worked for neither.During my youth the third most profitable industry was moonshine, now its pot.My Dad owned a small independent mine for a period but was forced out of business by union miners who threatened his ... Read More
Rating: 
- Interesting Documentary
I grew up in a county bordering Harlan County. As coal company employees my father and uncle both experienced the strikes of the seventies, and the associated violence, so this documentary appealed to me for those reasons.Despite what appears to me to unfortunately be socialist or "progressive" undertones, Kopple does a good job of depicting the life of the eastern Kentucky coal miner in the early seventies.Although the UMWA has outlived its usefulness, the documentary illustrates why it was necessary ... Read More
- HardLuck County, USAI remembered this film winning the Oscar for Best Ducumentary back in the 1970's.I remember really wanting to see it but, especially back then, it was pretty hard to come across documentaries on TV (forget about movie theaters).Thus it was with great pleasure that I noticed it on the April schedule of the Independent Film Channel.My politics have changed over the years so I haven't rushed out to join a union or volunteer to parade in a pickett line after watching "Harlan County, USA".However, ... Read More
- Very well done DocThis is one of the best done documentiers I have seen in some time, it gets to the hart of the ppl right off the start and keeps the viewer in pace with the situation and the times.
Highly recommended for personal or education use.
- Where are people of this courage today?When I saw this documentary it confirmed what Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States 1492 - the Present" talked about regarding the hard fought victories of early unionism in America.I was grabbed by the throat emotionally by this documentary and its grip did not stop with the end of the film.Union members literally get beaten, shot, disrespected, and dismissed by the mine owners and their goon squads.
What impresses me most is the courage of these miners, their wives ... Read More
- Harlan County, U.S.AI was born in Harlan County but escaped to spend a career in the US Air Force.When this strike happened I was overseas and the event escaped my notice until just now.I do remember the absolute poverty of the coal camps but they were no worse than lumber camps or the homes of many who worked for neither.During my youth the third most profitable industry was moonshine, now its pot.My Dad owned a small independent mine for a period but was forced out of business by union miners who threatened his ... Read More
- Interesting DocumentaryI grew up in a county bordering Harlan County. As coal company employees my father and uncle both experienced the strikes of the seventies, and the associated violence, so this documentary appealed to me for those reasons.Despite what appears to me to unfortunately be socialist or "progressive" undertones, Kopple does a good job of depicting the life of the eastern Kentucky coal miner in the early seventies.Although the UMWA has outlived its usefulness, the documentary illustrates why it was necessary ... Read More
