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 ****
