Harlan County USA

A true David and Goliath scenario was passionately portrayed in Barbara Kopple's Harlan County, USA, depicting the merciless feud of 1973 between the 180 impoverished coal mining residents of Harlan County, Kentucky and the gluttonous corporate representatives of Duke Power Company. In order to accurately represent the situation of the miners, Kopple and her film crew  spent years documenting the poverty-stricken lives of the miner's families as they continued to strike for fair labor practice, healthy and safe working conditions, and satisfactory wages. While the striking methods of the miners begin to exhaust they were forced to be innovative with their strategies and expand their horizons by picketing in front of New York's stock exchange, interviewing miners and ex-miners who have been diagnosed with black lung disease, and catching on film a miner being shot while on strike. I felt that the peak of prominence in the dispute was when the company's adamant intent to include a no-strike clause in the miner's contract became visible. I believe the feelings of authenticity that this film projected are in part due to that fact that Kopple allowed the townspeople to narrate the film with their daily conversations. I believe that this factor severely altered the form of this documentary, and it would not have had the same intense impact if Kopple had narrated it.  

Duke Power Co.'s profits increased more than one hundred  percent in one year, and miners already lacking basic utilities like running water or electricity received a four percent pay increase in spite of a seven percent increase in costs of living the same year. Statistics such as these indicate a devastating wealth and income inequality between coal miners and corporate employees. In this particular scenario i believe that the income inequality should be reversed based on the fact that harder work deserves better pay, and these coal miners are working harder than any corporate occupation and not to mention risking their lives daily. 

 

The extensive amounts of bluegrass music in the film serves to emphasize the joys, sorrows and anticipations of the miners and their families throughout the film. For too many of these mining families this film recorded what was expected to be the verge of their demise, a strong sense of courage permeates from a people who remain willful through what might be their last days. After about a year on strike, it takes the death of striking miner Lawrence Jones, who is fatally shot by corporate employee, to begin peaceful negotiation between the miners and the company. Much of the film examines the ideologies of the miner's families and is shot from the perspective of the miners wives who straightforwardly state how they feel and what they believe, through raw unadulterated emotion. One striker attributes the ultimate termination of the strike to Barbara Kopple and her film crew, stating that the cameras most likely prevented some form of violence. It was evident throughout the film that Kopple felt sympathy towards the miners of Harlan County and their families, which is probably her reason for creating the film. 

Power Structure = Imbalance

Corporate - Bribes, "Gun Thugs", Alliance w/ Authorities, Union Busting, Shifts in Labor to Non-Unionized Areas, Influence on Laws, Communist Baiting

Union - Strike, Negotiations, Raising Public Awareness, Influence on Shareholders