Chris Cooper Made His Movie Debut in This Bold, Brutal, and Profound Historical Drama With James Earl Jones

Tumultuous times call for voices of reason. In a thorny climate where civil liberties and protection seem to be under fire in the public and private fields, Matewan has become an essential watch for all Americans. Of course, the film was already urgent and probing upon release in 1987, but John Sayles‘ masterpiece has taken on a new life in recent years.

Starring Chris Cooper in his debut feature film appearance and the late James Earl Jones, Matewan is a historical account of the impoverished and suffering coal miners in a small town in West Virginia rising against the treacherous, union-busting corporate overlords. Although the film dramatizes a forgotten tragedy in the United States’ long history of ruthless capitalism, Sayles’ remarkable triumph as a writer-director underlines the beauty of blue-collar solidarity and the will of the human spirit against the corporate machine.

Chris Cooper and James Earl Jones in a union meeting in 'Matewan' — Image via Cinecom Pictures

John Sayles, the socially and politically conscious director of The Brother From Another Planet and Lone Star, combined his sharp eye for commentary with his background as a B-movie writer, working alongside Joe Dante, who both honed their craft under exploitation master, Roger Corman. This convergence of ideals lends his movies a bootstrapping quality, as his provocative themes and messages can only be realized away from the major studio system. As a nation that prefers to maintain the status quo, the idea of laborers rebelling against their corporate “masters” due to meager wages and perilous conditions threatens our idealistic interpretation of capitalism.

In Matewan, Sayles recounts the story of the titular town in 1920 during a coal miners’ strike. Joe Kenehan (Cooper), an outside union organizer, bands together an underground, radical group of strikers and the Black and Italian miners crossing the picket line, but factions emerge within the union that divide them, leaving them vulnerable against the company and leading to an eventual massacre. In a magnetic supporting turn, James Earl Jones plays “Few Clothes” Johnson, a burly but wholehearted worker perpetually conflicted by his loyalty to the company and the union.

James Earl Jones Couldn’t Speak for 8 Years of His Life

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Thanks to his roots in genre filmmaking, Matewan resembles a classic Western stylistically and thematically. Shot by legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler (who earned an Oscar nomination for his work on the film), the luscious landscapes of rural West Virginia shine, and the open vista overwhelms these little people defending their remaining vestige of free will against a corporation that owns every fiber of land around them. The simple, elegiac poetry of a group of men standing up for what’s right is reminiscent of the films of John Ford, who made his own story of coal miners being sent to slaughter in one of Clint Eastwood‘s favorites, How Green Was My Valley. Channeling the Howard Hawks Western Rio Bravo, there is a rush of visceral propulsion watching the union solidify and expand, and it’s hard not to get chills during the triumphant scene when all the bigoted organizers finally allow their Black and Italian co-workers to join the union for a greater cause. Sayles extracts high-level tension in dialogue-heavy scenes with little explicit action, such as Kenehan’s stand-offs with the corporation’s goons aiming to scare off the union and the rousing speeches made by the strikers in their private meetings.

‘Matewan’ Humanizes Laborers and Emphasizes the Importance of Unionization

Matewan is a modern-day David vs. Goliath, and there’s no group of people easier to root for than hard-working, plucky laborers defying the predatory rule of greedy corporate suits. However, Sayles presents some skepticism and cynicism over the workers’ strike, particularly in the tribal complexes that manifest throughout the film. Organizers are shown to be just as unscrupulous and power-hungry as the overlords they’re fighting against, and their blatant racism indicates that Sayles would turn this harrowing true story into a comic book-like bout between good and evil. Like America as a whole, the union becomes fractured, with the split driven by race and theological background. Their differing ardent religious beliefs strain their trust, but in the end, they refuse to dissolve this social cause. After all, any God is more righteous than having a corporation serve as your deity. Sayles also breaks down good-and-evil archetypes with the town’s sheriff, Sid Hatfield (David Strathairn), a sturdy law officer straddling the line between authoritarian and freedom fighter.

The brilliance and magnitude of Matewan extend beyond the cinematic art form, as no artistic expression has emphasized the necessity of labor unions as powerfully as John Sayles’ film, even though the cause ends in a tragic gunfight. Sticking up for worker’s rights may be a fatalistic cause, but its long-term impact is worth it all. In fact, the uplifting triumph of standing side-by-side with your fellow workers outweighs any feeling given by a thankless job for a predatory corporation. Contemporary America offers little hope for the non-elite/wealthy, but Matewan ought to provide some catharsis.