Matewan (1987) on Netflix
Joe Kenehan comes to Matewan, West Virginia, in 1920 to organize striking coal miners. The miners bar Black and Italian workers from their union; Baldwin-Felts agents arrive to evict them.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.9/1010,751 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
In mid-May 1920, the men of the Stone Mountain Coal Company have walked out over wage cuts. A crowd of them is beating the Black workers the company brought in to cross the picket line when Joe Kenehan, a former Wobbly with pacifist leanings, reaches Matewan, West Virginia, to organize them. Kenehan lodges at the boarding house run by Elma Radnor, a miner's widow whose fifteen-year-old son Danny works underground and preaches. The strikers want no Black or Italian men in their union. Two Baldwin-Felts agents, Griggs and Hickey, take rooms at the same house and begin serving eviction notices on miners living in company housing. Mayor Testerman and police chief Sid Hatfield refuse to let anyone be put out without writs from Charleston.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Matewan (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor sampled the film's version of "Gathering Storm" for the track "Providence" on its 1997 album F♯ A♯ ∞, then reused the melody for a track also called "Gathering Storm" on its 2000 album Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven.
- In 2023 the Library of Congress selected Matewan for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, calling it "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
