Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Harlan County U.S.A.

Barbara Kopple’s film profiling a miner’s strike in Eastern Kentucky, an area of the country with a violent labor history, documents the harsh realities and becomes intimate with the impoverished, impassioned residents. The documentary makes fantastic use of local protest music and contains many memorable moments including life on the picket lines, a sheriff paying a visit in order to have an obstructing vehicle moved, a conversation between a miner and a New York City police officer, and the graphic return to the scene where a young man was shot and killed by company thugs.
*** ½ out of ****