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Matewan [DVD] [1987]
 
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Matewan [DVD] [1987]

DVD ~ Chris Cooper
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Matewan [DVD] [1987]
62% buy the item featured on this page:
Matewan [DVD] [1987] 4.5 out of 5 stars (8)
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Product details

  • Actors: Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Will Oldham, David Strathairn
  • Directors: John Sayles
  • Writers: John Sayles
  • Producers: Amir Jacob Malin, Ira Deutchman, James Glenn Dudelson, Jerry Silva, Maggie Renzi
  • Format: Anamorphic, PAL
  • Language English, Italian
  • Region: All Regions
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: Second Sight Films Ltd.
  • DVD Release Date: 2 April 2001
  • Run Time: 127 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00005A3Q5
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 35,938 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

A little-known chapter of American labour history is brought vividly to life in this period drama from writer-director John Sayles. It's a fictional story about labour wars among West Virginia coal miners during the 1920s, but every detail is so right that the film has the unmistakable ring of truth. The tension begins when the Stone Mountain Coal Company of Matewan, West Virginia, announces a lower pay rate for miners, who respond by calling a strike under the leadership of a United Mine Workers representative (Chris Cooper). Proving strength in numbers, the miners are joined by black and Italian miners who initially resist the strike, and a fateful battle ensues when detectives hired by the coal company attempt to evict miners from company housing. Violence erupts in a sequence of astonishing, cathartic intensity, and Matewan achieves a rare degree of moral complexity combined with gut-wrenching tragedy. The film salutes a pacifist ideal while recognising that personal and political convictions often must be defended with violence. To illustrate this point, Sayles enlisted master cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who creates the film's authentic visual texture--a triumph of artistry over limited resources. The result is a milestone of independent filmmaking, and Matewan remains one of Sayles's finest achievements. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com


Special Features

16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 5
English
Region 0
Mono English
Mono
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Sayles' best, 1 Feb 2005
By J. E. Davidson (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Many of John Sayles' films are about the oppression of the American working man by the man (Brother from Another Planet, Eight Men Out) and his broadly left-wing sensibilities suffuse all his work. It is funny that his best film (well in my opinion anyway) is literally about the oppression of the working class.

This is a fantastic movie - a terribly sad tale of a group of minors in Matewan, West Virginia in the 1920s as the struggle to unionise, fight for better pay and conditions. In fact the company is even more sinister: it owns their homes, it runs the only shop (they are not even paid in US dollars, they are paid in company scrip), effectively it owns them.

The main protagonist is the union representative sent into the town to help organise a strike. The film centres on him as it follows the story of strike through to the inevitable conclusion in violence and tragedy.

Almost every aspect of the film is close to perfection: the cinematography (presumably on a tiny budget) is beautiful and haunting, the story is well paced with a tangible feeling of authenticity and the cast is excellent. There is a real "sense of place" - I felt transported to West Virginia and into the lives of the strikers. This is not a simplistic film - it tackles complex subjects like justifiable violence and racism (when black workers are imported to break the strike) in an intelligent and thoughtful way.

Simply wonderful

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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Slow-burning, non-Hollywood masterpiece, 27 April 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Matewan [VHS] [1987] (VHS Tape)
I saw this film first as a teen on late-night TV years ago, and it has been nestling in my head like a memory of an old friend. Sayles is a master of telling powerful stories without resorting to worn-out Hollywood cliches, and this is no different. Characters talk, act...LIVE within this tale of Union men trying to get what they deserve,and there is no sentimental pay-off or cop-out. This is a richly rewarding piece of art that deserves several viewings...and if you are a fan of the Palace Brothers/Bonnie Prince Billy, there is an extra treat in Will Oldhams performance that seems to foreshadow his later musical personae.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars State of the Union, 10 Nov 2005
By Trevor Willsmer (London, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
Matewan was a pleasant surprise. The subject matter cried out ‘dull but worthy’ and John Sayles is distinctly hit-and-miss when dealing with historical subjects, as the problematic Eight Men Out underlines, but this is quite a superb movie with a scope well beyond its budget. Almost a slow burn western as a miner’s strike leads slowly but inevitably to a violent shootout between the railroad detectives and the local lawman and strikers, it’s an involving and intelligent piece of work. That’s not to say it’s without problems: it perhaps overstates Kevin Tighe’s villainous stupidity (could he really have laughed his way through a sermon without seeing the relevance?), a scene where the white, black and Italian miners set aside their differences through music feels too Hollywood, and Haskell Wexler over diffuses the light a couple of times in that irritating late-70s-early-80s way in his otherwise exemplary cinematography.

Sayles briefly offers another one of his stomach-turning cameos as a preacher, but at least he’s only in it for a minute or two (unlike his genuinely irritating Ring Lardner impersonation in Eight Men Out) and he’s on much more solid grounds with his impressive ensemble cast – a young Chris Cooper on excellent form, Mary McDonnell before she got irritating, James Earl Jones before he stopped acting, David Strathairn, Bob Gunton and Will Oldham among them. You get the sense that Sayles likes his characters and cares for them. It’s that which prevents the film from slipping into easy dogma and posturing and which makes it still seem surprising and shocking when the inevitable violence breaks out. And it’s that that helps you overlook the flaws and embrace its many strengths.

No extras, but at least Second Sight's DVD is widescreen.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "I figure we're all in this together!"

Matewan is a small mining town in West Virginia and the film is staged during the early 1920's. Read more
Published 7 months ago by MovieZone

4.0 out of 5 stars a timely "history" lesson
It is a rarity these days to see a film that has a social conscience, what with Hollywood more preoccupied with more action and better special effects, so watching this movie... Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2006 by Mr. Rwj Nixon

5.0 out of 5 stars Matewan deserves to be a best seller
Matewan is a superb film, good acting, excellently shot, and a rivetting story.
The ending is violent, but that too is well done. Read more
Published on 29 Feb 2004 by 500bullett

5.0 out of 5 stars Capitalism is only a step away from this again ....
This film is about the absolute power Capitalists want. Not the namby pamby power of the "right to manage" which Thatcher droned on about but real gun toting, red in tooth and... Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2003

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Film let down by Poor Transfer
This film is based in the 1920's, in the small mining town of Matewan. When the workers go on strike all hell breaks lose, and the film feels more like a gangster movie than a... Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2001

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