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Matewan
Drama, History
Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.
View on IMDbAppeals to viewers who value politically committed historical dramas about solidarity, injustice, and ordinary people resisting entrenched power.
- Tone
- tense, bleak, bittersweet
- Payoff
- catharsis, heartbreak
- Pacing
- steady
- Intensity
- intense
- Structure
- linear
- Themes
- labor solidarity, exploitation, racial division, collective action, workers' rights
- Setting
- 1920s, isolated Appalachian company town and coal mines