Harlan County, USA
Directed by Barbara Kopple
Bessie Cornett Parker:: You say the laws were made for us. The laws were not made for the working people in this country. There’s a person mising here today and that’s Carl Horn. The law was made for people like Carl Horn, not for us, so I knew when I came here — without offering any testimony or getting up. I knew what I was doing at Brookside because that’s what I wanted to do. For once, I was able to take the offensive instead of coming down here to take a step backward, to try and defend what I did. What we did is right and we all know that.
Kopple and company do an admirable job of both portraying and interacting with their subjects. They’re able to capture some amazing moments in a way that makes them seem urgent and dramatic even today, thirty years after the fact. It’s astounding how much the coal-mine operators were allowed to get away with in their bid to keep workers from unionizing and simply making their lives more livable. And the soundtrack is really great.
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I LOVE barbara kopple. I think it’s partially her fault that I turned into a nonfiction writer after years of short story writing… she was at MIFF last year and she was the first guest whose autograph I requested. in eight years. I want her to make MORE MOVIES NOW.