Matewan (1987)

Watch The Film Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvLwOfLZAbY

Synopsis:

John Sayle’s 1987 film Matewan pays credence to working class struggle and union organizing, in the context of a 1920’s work cessation with a coal company that attempts to rein control over a mining community. Taken place in the mining capital of West Virginia in 1921, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), miner “Few Clothes” Johnson (James Earl Ray), mayor Cabell Testerman and police chief Sid Hatfield (David Stratharin) fight against the powers of the Stone Mining Coal Company and Baldwin-Felts detective agency so that workers’ rights and their standard of living wouldn’t be suppressed by subpar working conditions and exploitation. The film dramatizes the events of the Battle of Matewan, a shootout and workers strike between local coal miners and Baldwin-Felts detectives in Matewan, a small mining town in southern West Virginia.

Two men sent to Matewan on behalf of the Stone Mountain Coal Company (left) meet Police Chief Sid Hatfield and Mayor Cabell Testerman (right) moments prior to the shootout on the train tracks on Matewan that would later become known as “The Battle of Matewan” or “the Matewan Massacre.”

Genre:

Matewan is a historical drama that uses realism to illustrate the dynamic struggles within a small coal mining town known as Matewan, West Virginia, in which the miners “stand up” to the Stone Mountain Coal Company in the form of a union. Taking place in 1920, the coal miners of Matewan found themselves facing multi-faceted hardships from decreasing wages and poor working conditions, to the struggles of assimilation between the white men of Matewan, the Italian immigrants, and the African American men, to the threats coming from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, to the challenges of living in a coal camp with dwindling union funds, ultimately to the violence and death of their own at the hands of the agents as well as gunman of the Coal company. The Appalachian music that is consistently played throughout the film expresses the misc en scene and aural narrative strategies that gave viewers a deeper sense of place and time in the film. The drama element of this film is strong, as viewers experience the emotions of injustice, hate, hopefulness, justice, and peace, among many others.

The film certainly depicts the pure hardship of life in a coal mine. Similarly, the film utilizes scenes such as the one depicted above to portray the tensions between the white men of Matewan, the Italian immigrants, and the African American men, all of whom would come to find solidarity in their equal struggles against the Stone Mountain Coal Company.

Narrative Structure:

The film follows a chronological structure of events. There are frequent montages, which are often accompanied by Appalachian folk music. The film has a narrator, who appears to be an older man with an Appalachian accent. Throughout the film the narrator speaks as if the events are in the past. The narrator also offers interiority to the miners’ point of view, implying he is somehow associated with the union side. The final scene reveals that the narrator is an old Danny Radnor, though that is concealed for a majority of the film.

The events of the film generally follow Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) His character’s motivations are not given initially; when Joe Kenehan is first introduced, it is not clear that he is a union organizer, though this is revealed later on in the film. This uncertainty places the viewer in the same position as the townsfolk, trying to figure out who Kenehan is.

There are a few other characters through whom the story is focalized at different points. One such character is “Few Clothes” Johnson (James Earl Jones). Johnson becomes the representative for the Black coal miners, and is notably the first Black man to join the union. Kenehan defends Johnson when the white coal miners threaten him. Another key character is Danny Radnor, a 15 year old coal miner and preacher in the town. Danny is the first character to name the union in the opening sequence. It is through Danny’s eyes that we see Hillard Elkins (Jace Alexander) murdered by the Baldwin-Felts men Hickey (Kevin Tighe) and Griggs (Gordon Clapp). This killing ignites the final battle that leaves several of the characters dead. A few scenes are also focalized through Police Chief Sid Hatfield (David Strathairn), such as the scene where Hickley and Griggs try to pay him off to look the other way.

There are also a few different villains. As this is a union film, the overarching villain is the company. However, the hired goons from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, Hickley and Griggs, certainly get the most screen time. They are shown threatening, hasassing and even shooting the miners and townspeople. They are portrayed as sleazy and corrupt, especially when compared to the lawful demeanor of characters like police chief Sid Hatfield. Another notable villain is C.E. Lively (Bob Gunton). Lively initially appears pro-union, though it is later revealed that he is a spy for the company. Lively also sets up an elaborate plot to get Kenehan assassinated, though Radnor thwarts this plan by spying on Hickley and Griggs. The two men are joined by several other men hired by the company in the final battle.

Danny Radnor (left) faces Griggs, one of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency men, who threatens Danny’s life inside the Radnor home. Danny and his mother Elma house Griggs and Hickey in their boarding house, which illustrates one of many unique challenges faced by the townspeople of Matewan in their stand against the Stone Mountain Coal Company.

Historical Accuracy:

The Stone Mountain Coal Company was an actual company that owned several mines across the land of Mingo County, West Virginia. The company hired the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency on May 19, 1920 to forcibly evict several families who lived in company owned housing. Before this action was taken by the company, tensions had been rising as the coal miners of Matewan sought to unionize as other towns and groups across West Virginia had been doing so. The company responded to this by bringing in black and Italian miners and charging local miners with evictions and firings.

Many characters introduced were involved in the conflict. Sid Hatfield and Cabell Testerman, (the Chief of Police and mayor, respectively) were notably pro-union and supported the miners efforts. They are the ones who approached the detectives before the massacre began. Albert and Lee Felts, namesakes of the Baldwin-Felts Agency, led the eviction process and both would die from the gun fight.

The timeline of events is stretched in the movie. The events actually happened in one day, the Felts brothers and several other detectives arrived in Matewan on the morning train, spent the day evicting families, before eating dinner to catch the five o’clock train out of the town, and the gun fight breaking out when the detectives were on their way to the train station. Miners were having union meetings prior to this, but the presence of the company and hired detectives was brief compared to film which occurred over several days.

While Matewan is a rather accurate portrayal of the Matewan Massacre that occurred in 1920 and represented by several characters that existed in real life, the director creates a few fictional characters to dramatize the events. Joe Kenehan and Danny Radnor are both fictional characters in the film. They are tools used to unify the miners, and especially address the racial divide separating the miners.

Kenehan also exists as an outside source of union knowledge, however historian Eric Foner credits Kenehan from taking away from the sense of history in the community and making it necessary for an outsider to teach “lessons in union organizing and racial tolerance” despite the culture of unionization occurring across the state. Matewan portrays the events well, but it does not provide the context of time period and region well. Miners in the region were acquainted with unions and it was hardly necessary for an outsider to help set one up.

Mayor of Matewan, Cabell Testerman, was shot during “The Battle of Matewan.” Mayor Testerman eventually succumbed to his wounds, dying as a non-coal miner in the coal miners’ struggle.

Matewan and History 2065:

This film is set about 100-60 years after the time period we discussed in class this week, although many of the tones were similar. We saw anti-immigrant sentiment directed at the Italian miners in a similar way to what Irish immigrants faced in the 1800s. We also saw the local miners blaming the immigrants and people of color for losing their jobs rather than their bosses unfair labor practices. As was mentioned in lecture, immigrant labor was often used to undercut union efforts like it was in the film. Another aspect of the lecture material reflected in this movie is the worsening labor conditions. The lack of legislative regulations made cruel and dangerous labor conditions fairly common, as we saw in Matewan. However, an issue brought up in the film that wasn’t really touched on in lecture is that the both the companies and federal government didn’t want to put regulations in place.

Pictured above is Joe Kenehan (bottom right corner) with Police Chief Sid Hatfield (right) and others arriving to find the body of a dead union member after being betrayed by C.E. Lively who was spying on behalf of the company. Spies were one of the many challenges that unionizers faced at this time.

One thought on “Matewan (1987)”

Margaret Newell says:

May 4, 2021 at 6:33 pm

Great job Team Matewan. This post has very strong film analysis, some of the best anyone did in the semester, and great content and historicity. Excellent primary sources, too. I’d like you to amplify the point made by Eric Foner about the local roots and appeal of unionization. You might also want to contextualize the politics of the era. What else what going on with race, immigration, Red Scare, etc. in this era? Italian immigrants brought a union and radical tradition to the U.S. Also, what should we make of the use of armed mercenaries, which the detectives were? The use of violence and these “detective” agencies like the Pinkertons in suppressing union movements is a constant element in the history of the Gilded Age as well.

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