Review – Matewan

This is the most blatant piece of pro-labor propaganda since Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. And like its predecessor, it’s also an extremely effective piece of film-making. John Sayles brings the full force of his skills as a writer and director to the task of portraying the start of the coal field wars to the silver screen. The characters are interesting, however cliché they may be. The plot tends to wander on occasion, but the story stays interesting throughout. Sure, the forces of justice triumph with a level of convenience usually reserved for episodes of Superfriends. But darn it, sometimes it’s nice to see people who deserve to win actually triumph in the end (and even frequently throughout the rest of the two and a half hours of the picture’s running time as well). For my money, the movie is worth seeing just for the scene in which David Straithairn’s character expresses his opinion of the owner of the detective agency that sends strike breakers to the town. Buy the disc