Harlan County, USA
Criterion, $39.95
During the summer of 1973, the men at the Brookside Mine in Harlan, Ky., voted to join the United Mine Workers of America. Duke Power Company refused to sign the contract, and the miners went on strike. Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award-winning documentary follows the miners throughout their 13-monthlong fight for justice. Harlan was not an easy place to live, especially during a strike. Beatings and death threats abounded while police readily turned a blind eye. But the miners endured, and, perhaps equally inspiringly, so did the filmmakers. The extensive supplemental materials (which include an interview with filmmaker and fan John Sayles) do much to celebrate the stamina of both parties. The too-short (at 21 minutes) doc “The Making of Harlan County, USA” includes revealing interviews with subjects and crew (UT lecturer and the film’s associate director, Anne Lewis, among them). Though sometimes frustratingly separate from the footage you’re watching, the commentary track by producer/director Kopple and editor Nancy Baker illuminates their devotion to the film with endearing insights. The footage itself, at once stylish and gritty, is mesmerizing. And when the first frame of the gorgeous hi-def digital transfer (the film was shot on 16mm) appears, it’s immediately apparent how the beauty of film buries the DV of today’s docs. And then there’s the music. Kopple drenched her movie in songs indigenous to the film’s eastern Kentucky locale and the surrounding Appalachian region, adding both a sense of history and immediacy to the already exploding subject matter. Kopple’s work lacks the self-important malevolence of modern-day incarnations (see any post-Roger & Me Michael Moore effort), and its spirit emerges from unaffected altruistic desires. Miner Jerry Johnson says as much during his interview in “The Making of” doc when he recalls, “If the film crew hadn’t been sympathetic to our cause, we would have lost. And thank God they were. I mean, thank God they were on our side.” Every filmmaker should be so blessed.
Also Out Now
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?: Two-Disc Special Edition (Warner Home Video, $26.98): Gothic, grotesque, disturbing, and fabulous, this psychological thriller/camp classic shows Bette Davis in all of her deranged glory torturing real-life nemesis Joan Crawford. With a commentary track by Lypsinka and multiple docs, it’s a must-have for any Davis fan.
This article appears in June 23 • 2006.