Harlan County USA

A landmark documentary that feels as vibrantly alive and relevant today as it did three decades ago, filmmaker Barbara Kopple's Oscar-winning 1976 Harlan County USA offers an insider's look at a divisive year-plus coal miner's strike that began in 1973 in a small Kentucky town. Combining cinéma vérité-style footage (Kopple herself was knocked down by mine company thugs in one scene) with interviews of the picketing miners, their strong-willed wives and mothers (“we're Harlan County union from the top of our head to the sole of our foot,” says one elderly woman), and various company and law officials, the film also interweaves historical footage of the fight between two candidates for leadership of the United Mine Workers Association, a contest that ended in murder—as does the Harlan County standoff, after a scab kills a striking worker. Running throughout the film, the bluegrass protest songs of Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning, and Florence Reese (whose classic “Which Side Are You On?” was covered by Natalie Merchant on her The House Carpenter's Daughter CD) offer an alternately uplifting and poignant soundtrack to the events depicted onscreen. Presented with a characteristically excellent transfer, this Criterion Collection release features audio commentary by Kopple and editor Nancy Baker, a fine 22-minute retrospective documentary featuring the filmmakers and film interviewees, deleted scenes, a brief interview with filmmaker John Sayles (whose fictional Matewan would address a similar subject), an excerpt from a Sundance panel discussion featuring Kopple and film critic Roger Ebert, and a 22-page booklet featuring new essays. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)