334 Harlan County USA

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Theodore R. Stockton
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334 Harlan County USA

#1 Post by Theodore R. Stockton » Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:55 pm

Harlan County USA

[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/1097/334_box_348x490_w128.jpg[/img]

Barbara Kopple's Academy Award–winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Featuring a haunting soundtrack—with legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning, and Florence Reece—the film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.

Special Features

-New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director-producer Barbara Kopple
-Audio commentary by Kopple and editor Nancy Baker
-The Making of “Harlan County, USA,” a new documentary featuring interviews with Kopple, crew members and strike participants featured in the film
-New video interview with legendary bluegrass singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens
-Never-before-seen outtakes from the film
-New video interview with director John Sayles
-A panel discussion from the 2005 Sundance Film Festival featuring Kopple and Roger Ebert
-Original theatrical trailer
-Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
-New essays by film scholar Paul Arthur and music journalist Jon Weisberger

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atcolomb
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#2 Post by atcolomb » Sat Oct 15, 2005 12:32 pm

The movie was on video at one time and last year Turner Classic Movies played the movie on tv which looked alot better than the vhs tape. I hope it comes to dvd with a commentary from Barbara Koppel.

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FilmFanSea
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#3 Post by FilmFanSea » Sat Oct 15, 2005 1:44 pm

This will be a timely release since the American labor movement is nearly on life support at this point, fraught as it is with corruption, infighting, and public antipathy. A little history lesson is just what is needed to restore some balance to the equation.

atcolomb
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#4 Post by atcolomb » Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:12 am

.....i agree!.....the american labor force is being stepped on by big business who only care about their stockholders and nothing else!!
I would also check out Koppel's "American Dream" (1989) which shows the strike at a Hormel meat plant.

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Gregory
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#5 Post by Gregory » Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:31 pm

The particular problems labor faces in the U.S. have developed gradually over a long period. The largest of these are not merely internal to the unions. Public antipathy has been greatly exagerrated -- recall the enormous outpouring of support on a national level for striking United Parcel Service workers in the 1990s. Most of the suspicions people have of unions are engendered by management where they work and by the media and, in my view, are not that entrenched. Maybe watching Harlan County, USA will help people see another side of the argument, if enough people see it. Of course, I predict that many viewers will simply make fun of the Kentuckians for being ugly and ignorant, or some such red herring. In any case, I saw it about two years ago and look forward to revisiting it.
As for American Dream, I didn't know the DVD existed until a few months ago and recently picked it up in DeepDiscountDVD's "buy 2 get 1 free" sale which is still going on here until Oct. 30. The final price was only $5.99.
Last edited by Gregory on Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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tavernier
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#6 Post by tavernier » Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:44 pm

Gregory wrote:Public antipathy has been greatly exagerrated -- recall the enormous outpouring of support on a national level for striking United Postal Service workers in the 1990s. .
It was actually United Parcel Service (UPS) workers who were on strike.
Post office employees are federal workers - I don't think they can strike, can they?

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Gregory
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#7 Post by Gregory » Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:54 pm

I know that. It was strictly a typo (now fixed). I type too fast from time to time.

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Tribe
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#8 Post by Tribe » Tue Oct 18, 2005 1:25 am

Post office employees are federal workers - I don't think they can strike, can they?
They sure can.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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#9 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:25 am

5 USC § 7311:
An individual may not accept or hold a position in the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia if he--

(1) advocates the overthrow of our constitutional form of government;

(2) is a member of an organization that he knows advocates the overthrow of our constitutional form of government;

(3) participates in a strike, or asserts the right to strike, against the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia; or

(4) is a member of an organization of employees of the Government of the United States or of individuals employed by the government of the District of Columbia that he knows asserts the right to strike against the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia.
Under 18 USC § 1918, a striking federal employee cannot only be fired but also fined and imprisoned for up to a year.

Now, there are instances where the government chose not to enforce this law (or enforced it selectively to make an example of certain employees), but they're still on the books and they've been upheld by the Supreme Court. That's how Reagan was able to fire the striking air traffic controllers in '81.

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Tribe
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#10 Post by Tribe » Tue Oct 18, 2005 12:28 pm

5 USC § 7311
My bad...was thinking about UPS. Carry on.

Tribe

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colinr0380
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#11 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:47 am

There is an interview from 10th October on WFMU's Speakeasy with Dorian with Jerry Johnson (from about 30 minutes in) and he discusses the film for the Cinema Village screenings. He also mentions that he is going to be interviewed soon for the DVD.

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souvenir
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#12 Post by souvenir » Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:30 pm

Specs finally up:

Special Features


DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES

New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director-producer Barbara Kopple

Audio commentary by Kopple and editor Nancy Baker

The Making of “Harlan County, USA,â€

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blindside8zao
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#13 Post by blindside8zao » Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:24 pm

I've never seen this but it sounds interesting, Virginia coal-mining being the chief occupation of a lot of my earlier kin folk.

rossbrew
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#14 Post by rossbrew » Fri Feb 24, 2006 6:51 pm

Saw the brand new print the other night here in vancouver- very good film but not sure if there's enough "re-watchability" factor for me to purchase, however...

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Doctor Sunshine
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#15 Post by Doctor Sunshine » Fri Feb 24, 2006 8:15 pm

They've now replaced this,
The Struggle Continues, a new short film showing the coal miners attending the 2005 Sundance Film Festival
with this,
New video interview with director John Sayles
Doesn't involving a filmmaker with a disc suggest that Criterion somehow endorses that filmmaker's work? This is the second disc he's been interviewed for now. Maybe I'm being unfair, as I've only seen one of his films, but Casa de los babys was really terrible. And I'm not too fond of Mira Nair either.

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Tribe
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#16 Post by Tribe » Fri Feb 24, 2006 8:30 pm

Specs are up on this, and I was literally overwhelmed to find out that an interview with Hazel Dickens would be included.

Hazel Dickens was one of the first women who sang lead for bluegrass bands (a function which had historically been the place of men...in fact, until Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrarrd in the early sixties, women seldom if ever participated in bluegrass bands). While she's getting on in years today, at one time Dickens had the "purest" high-lonesome voice of any bluegrass singer, male or female.

Her best album is a compilation of her early years (with Alice Gerrard) called Pioneering Women of Bluegrass, which is an utterly blissful bluegrass album.

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tavernier
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#17 Post by tavernier » Fri Feb 24, 2006 8:32 pm

Doctor Sunshine wrote: Doesn't involving a filmmaker with a disc suggest that Criterion somehow endorses that filmmaker's work? This is the second disc he's been interviewed for now. Maybe I'm being unfair, as I've only seen one of his films, but Casa de los babys was really terrible. And I'm not too fond of Mira Nair either.
What does Mira Nair have to do with this?

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Doctor Sunshine
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#18 Post by Doctor Sunshine » Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:28 pm

She was interviewed on Battle of Algiers along with Sayles.

---Correction: Sayles wasn't on Battle of Algiers. But that was why I mentioned her too.

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Gregory
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#19 Post by Gregory » Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:25 pm

I can understand wanting to hear directly from the miners, but it seems as though Sayles' entire filmography is being written off pretty casually here. Wouldn't you have to see more than a few bits of his films (other than Limbo) as a bare minimum to judge whether he's saying anything radical in them? About his "definate [sic] but ho-hum visual style," have you seen Men With Guns? And what was wrong with the cinematography of Matewan by the great Haskell Wexler?
I'm confident he'll have interesting things to add to the discussion of Harlan County, USA -- and not just because he made Matewan. As for his status as an expert on mining history, I'm sure that's not the main reason he was chosen as a participany. However, certain interviews with him show that he does know his history, although he can be legitimately criticized (and has been) for leaving important parts of the story out of Matewan.

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Jeff
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#20 Post by Jeff » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:01 pm

Chips_Critic wrote:You're not missing anything. I've seen a few bits of other Sayles films (and one whole one - Limbo - which wasn't too bad), and he seems to combine a definate but ho-hum visual style with a total inability to say anything genuinely radical.
No Kidding! And while we're on the subject, why has Criterion put five films by that Alfred Hitchcock guy in the collection. I mean, I've only seen Topaz and bits of Torn Curtain, but that guy's awful!!!

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Tribe
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#21 Post by Tribe » Tue Feb 28, 2006 12:13 am

Gregory wrote:I can understand wanting to hear directly from the miners, but it seems as though Sayles' entire filmography is being written off pretty casually here.
It's an interesting choice since Sayles has made a career out of refusing to work with unions, with the exception of Matewan (something of a no-brainer). I don't if he has continued with the excuse that "unions-ruin-my creativity" schtick, but prior to Matewan he refused union crews.

I've seen quite a few of his films, and I've never been terribly impressed. Matewan and Eight Men Out were mildly entertaining movies...(I agree that Wexler's cinematography was excellent in Matewan, and fans of Bonnie "Prince" Billy might be interested in knowing that he appears in Matewan as the snotty over-acting child preacher) but his films prior to those bored me silly.

Perhaps he's gotten better, even overcome his fear of unions.

Tribe

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Gregory
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#22 Post by Gregory » Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:20 am

I think there's more to the discussion than you've allowed. Sayles discusses it for several pages of Sayles on Sayles (129-32) if anyone wants to hear out his side of it. Basically, he states that Matewan was all union and that the situation is a little different with each film. All along the members of his independent production company have been members of various guilds, which guarantee standard wages. He also argues that the unions (at least at that time) were developed for the studio system and thus not accomodated to independent productions, and he gives numerous examples of how this had presented problems. Also, circumventing standard union channels on Brother From Another Planet enabled them to operate with more black members of the production team than if the union had been involved in putting together the crew. Personally, no one has ever mistaken me as anti-union but I can definitely see certain labor configurations as stifling, particularly if an independent director cannot choose with whom he'll be working on a small production. Anyway, I shouldn't discuss it at any length here and turn this into just a thread about Sayles.
As for Will Oldham in Matewan, I don't think he was overacting. The character was young, full of anger and perhaps even had some sort of savior complex. I think Sayles got exactly the performance he wanted, but again I feel like that's a discussion for another thread.

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Tribe
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#23 Post by Tribe » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:27 am

No, Gegory, not accusing of being anti-union...and you're right, a Sayles discussion shouldn't hijack the thread (although, if an interview of him appears as an extra, he is sort of fair game).

Anyway, based on the announced specs, I'm somewhat disappointed that more extras about the music don't appear to be included (although its likely that the music might figure more prominently in the commentary and other extras). It should be noted that there will be an essay by Jon Weisberger, who is a regular writer for No Depression and Bluegrass Unlimited.

Tribe

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Gigi M.
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#24 Post by Gigi M. » Mon May 08, 2006 12:28 pm

First review is available at DVDTalk.

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What A Disgrace
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#25 Post by What A Disgrace » Mon May 08, 2006 12:45 pm

Well, this is a single disc release after all...but what a full-figured one it is.

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