Matewan

Matewan is a movie from the 80's about coal workers in the 20's trying to unionize while the evil mining company terrorizes them. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a well-filmed, well-acted film with some depth to it. There are a lot of actors in it who I recognize from modern TV shows, so it was a bit of a weird experience seeing President Roslin, Bob Kelso, and Anthony Cooper in the setting, but the story manages to hold up. Chris Cooper is a union organizer, and James Earl Jones is one of the miners.

The movie starts off showing you what kind of town it is, as a bunch of black laborers are brought off a train on the way in and jumped. They manage to make their way in anyway, only to be introduced to the excessively unfair conditions of working for the company. Cooper begins organizing the union secretly with some people who are already involved, but the company won't take it lying down and things escalate with double crosses, betrayal, and increasing violence. I certainly didn't expect most of this stuff to happen when I was told about a movie about coal miners. Sayles knows how to make a movie, and Matewan's a pretty good one.