Matewan

The Criterion Odyssey

Spine #999

Writer/Director: John Sayles

Cast: Chris Cooper, Mary McDonnell, James Earl Jones, Kevin Tighe

Cinematography: Haskell Wexler

Music: Mason Daring

Release: August 28, 1987

Company: Cinecom Pictures

Country: USA

Awards: Wexler was nominated for Best Cinematography, but lost to “The Last Emperor.”

I’d been snoozing on checking out “Matewan” because, frankly, it seemed like a bit of a pill to take. Upon first glance, it seems like one of those stale historical dramas and not much more. And now that I’ve gotten through it, boy was it a pleasant surprise. Not only did I learn how to properly pronounce “Matewan,” but I found the film, while flawed, to be a worthwhile addition to the collection.

The title is the name of a town where a long strike by coal miners took place in 1920, and how escalation between the parties resulted in an outburst of violence that left several dead. Chris Cooper plays Kenehan, a representative from the country’s union organizers who is desperately trying to win the strike without resorting to violence. Mary McDonnell runs the local boarding house and is sympathetic to the strikers, as is her young preacher son Danny (Will Oldham).

After the company brings in African American and Italian scab workers, one man named Few Clothes (James Earl Jones) breaks rank to talk to the union, enabling all the scab groups to join the cause. As things spirals out of control, the company sends two men to fix things… most notably Hickey, played by Kevin Tighe, who is willing to do anything to bring the strike to an end with the union losing.

It is a testament to how much writer/director John Sayles gets right with the film that it can overcome a fundamental problem that would cripple most other movies for me – that nearly all its main characters are two-dimensional. From the moment Kenehan arrives, he might as well be a saint, and it’s only because the character is being played by Cooper that he resonates at all. Same thing for McDonnell’s character. Hickey couldn’t be more of a mustache-twirling villain if he tried. Sayles’ themes and ethics are obvious from the first scene, and he seems to have no interest in finding shades to these characters that would put them on any other course than the one preordained for them at the outset.

Few Clothes is mostly two-dimensional, but Jones at least gets one crackerjack sequence where he is supposed to murder Kenehan (the group thinks he is a mole) and struggles for hours with his conscience. The one member of our main crew who is truly three-dimensional is Danny, and Oldham gives the best performance in a film filled with great actors. He inhabits the character of the vocal pastor who is, frankly, too young to understand the nuances of what he is teaching, and his coming of age arc is the thing that will linger with you long after the film ends.

As I wrote, these character problems would sink a lesser film. But I walked away very much liking “Matewan,” because Sayles gets so much else exactly right about the world the characters inhabit. The coal mines themselves look like nightmares to stand in, let alone chip away rock within when any moment could crush you. The town feels vital and alive – most of the supporting cast are given complexity that the leads are unfortunately not. Jo Henderson absolutely kills it as a widow who supports the strike and then loses her son… her grief feels like a white-hot rage that is astonishing to watch.

The homes, buildings and businesses also look lived in, which feels so much more real than all those period pieces where we see everything looks like new. The stuff that fills these locations feels 10-20 years old, which is more realistic.

And then there’s the climactic shoot-out itself, which is exquisitely represented. It’s so difficult to capture chaos properly onscreen – ever since “Saving Private Ryan,” lazy filmmakers just shake the camera a lot and figure that’s enough. But here the directing, cinematography and editing come together beautifully to capture an air of anarchy through quick cuts, explosive shots and character deaths… you feel unmoored but still know enough about what is going on to be impacted. It’s an astonishing scene, and I honestly am surprised it’s not studied more in film programs.

Speaking of the cinematography, Haskell Wexler pulls off some of the best work of his legendary career. The world feels green and alive, but not in that overproduced way – watching the movie feels like taking a walk in the woods.

The same cannot be said of Mason Daring’s score, which is filled to the brim with every possible cliché of the location. Worse, it’s overmixed to the point where it becomes grating. It also oddly isn’t utilized in several suspense sequences where the tension is undercut by the lack of underscore. There are several showstopping songs either sung by characters or on the soundtrack which much better create a mood than anything Daring conjures.

All in all, “Matewan” is a solid addition to Criterion, but one I would hesitate to recommend for a blind buy. I liked it a lot, but can see the problems easily overcoming one’s appreciation for the film. I am certainly happy that Sayles has finally joined the collection, though let’s hope that his next film to get a spine number is one of his more defining works.

Cover: About as bland as Criterion covers come. I know it’s a still from the film, but certainly they could have come up with something better. Too much black and brown space, and it’s hard to tell what the image even represents unless you look at it for a few seconds… and not in an interesting way.

I award it one-and-a-half blood-spattered bedsheets out of five.

Essay: A solid, not spectacular work by A.S. Hamrah that does well capturing Sayles’ particular ascetics. I wanted it to go a little deeper into the production itself as opposed to keeping things macro, but it’s still a worthwhile read.

I award it three-and-a-half falling leaves out of five.

Extras: Low key, this is one of the most stacked discs of the year.

• There’s an old commentary by Sayles and Wexler that is filled to the brim with fantastic stories about the film production, but also filmmaking in general. Highly recommended.
• There are two documentaries made at the same time which could have been easily rolled into a single longer one that revisits all the touchstones of the production. Everyone still alive has their say, and the director gets a lot more of the actors and crew personalities than we usually do in such work. A must watch.
• A superfluous interview with Daring about the music.
• An amazing short on the production design that is a real gem at capturing what went into building this world.
• A meh trailer.

I award it four-and-a-half midnight trains out of five.

Up Next: “The Daytrippers”