Word: matewan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...would be good to report that Sayles, who likes to portray groups under pressure (Return of the Secaucus Seven, Matewan), has solved all these issues, but he has not. Based on Eliot Asinof's definitive book of the same name, Eight Men Out lacks either the spacious simplicity of legend or the patient detailing of realism. And Sayles often seems like a man who, trying to stretch a single, gets caught between bases and is desperately trying to evade the rundown...
Director John Sayles turns a 1920 miners' strike into the low- budget epic Matewan. -- Shorts: Dirty Dancing and Mermaids...
These faces know hard times. They look sculpted from granite. They are sere with too much work, too little food and the knowledge that in 1920 in Matewan, W. Va., life is a bed of coal. Man and boy go into the mines and die; mother and wife wait for the sound of their men coming home, or for the fatal word that they won't. Life has pressed all hope out of these faces -- to smile would be a crime against remorseless nature -- though there is no free time for despair. The miners have been taught to accept their...
...Matewan (rhymes with great one) proves, as Return of the Secaucus 7 and The Brother from Another Planet did earlier, that John Sayles knows how to anchor a strong story -- here, the real-life massacre that led to the West Virginia mine wars -- in a fresh setting. He also knows how to make good-looking movies on the cheap. This period film, with a huge cast, cost only about $4 million, a budget that was met under the supposed financial restrictions of a full union crew. And in the rich umbers of Haskell Wexler's cinematography, Matewan does look great...
This is where Matewan hits pay dirt. As a union Judas, Bob Gunton pours cautious reason into the miners' ears, then sets Joe up for a fall -- a fine, taut, implosive job. And Kevin Tighe plays a company enforcer with a tight smile who has seen all the evil in the world and caused more than his share of it. With his round, ruddy face, Tighe always seems on the verge of derisive laughter or flash-fisted rage; it's enjoyable guessing which fever will surface first. The rest of the movie is less entertaining, a righteous homily without...