Harlan County War

The overwhelming majority of American studio film productions depict the world of the upper middle class, which constitutes only a few percent of the population. No one deals with the "losers," and at most, they portray them as criminals or victims of crime in detective stories. Harlan County War is a gritty film about uneducated people who make their living through manual labor, and the mine, pub, and family are the world they inhabit. The film shows realities that we are accustomed to seeing or imagining from the slums of Third World countries. Houses without running water, meaning women have to fetch buckets from a distant well, furnishings collected from a landfill, and a vocabulary that Eliza Doolittle from "Pygmalion" would be ashamed of. Harlan County War is a continuation of the small socially critical production that was once started by the film adaptation of "The Grapes of Wrath." Unlike that, however, it is just a TV movie with a limited budget, the screenplay is rather flat, and it mechanically captures the conflict between striking miners and the powerful mining company. If someone wants to see truly quality films about social struggles and strikes, they should choose British productions about the miners' strike from the era of Prime Minister Thatcher, such as Brassed Off or Billy Elliot. On the other hand, the subject matter and perspective are valuable, and Holly Hunter in the lead role as a miner's wife who organizes picket lines plays her part like a pro, and I certainly wouldn't look for a film star in that unassuming, mouthy woman. Stellan Skarsgård only plays his average self, but that is more than enough. The lower rating of the film is due to the subject matter, which is more distant from most users of FilmBooster than the lives of Martians in space. Overall impression: 60%. (04/07/2010)