Delayed Reaction: Harlan County, USA

The Pitch: Have you ever wanted to know what it's like to be in the middle of a violent labor dispute in rural Kentucky?

Barbara Kopple follows the 1973 Harlan County coal workers strike from beginning to end.

Frankly, I amazed that documentaries existed before 2000 or so. How were people making them? Camera's were bigger. For a proper documentary, there's normally hundreds of hours of footage, and before things went digital, that meant a lot of expensive film to buy. That must've been impossible to sort through. And documentaries never really made much money. How did any of them get funding? I don't think it's a coincidence that there's been a documentary boom in the last few years, given the easy access to good equipment, cheap digital storage, and higher visibility thanks to streaming services like Netflix.

For all these reasons and more, Harlan County, USA is a damn impressive documentary. Barbara Kopple was right in the middle of it all. She witnessed and recorded gunfire. I believe her crew was beaten up. She managed to get amazing access, despite only having the best portable equipment 1973 had to offer. The coal miner strike got violent. Kopple has stated there were times they pretended to keep filming despite running out of tape because the belief that they were being recorded was the only thing keeping either side from getting violent. I fully understand why this is such an important documentary. The depth of the commitment in both time spent and risk is impressive.

The movie is a little more slanted than I like in a documentary. I like when the filmmaker invites a countering opinion to see if it deflates their argument. If the topic can't withstand some scrutiny, then is it really worth examining? This is an in-depth look at the strikers. The horrible living conditions. Work that exposes them to horrible health conditions. It's not hard to take the strikers' side. That's no way to live. It's interesting too how differently the miners view their issues. There's that scene when the striker is talking to the cop in New York City when you realize just how differently they see things. The cop can't even imagine why they would keep the jobs even if they got everything they wanted. The strikers weren't asking for all that much.

The music is maybe a little overused. "Which Side Are You On?" is a perfect song for this, both in topic and in tone. I just didn't need so much of it and the other songs.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend