Plot Summary

Director John Sayles's drama takes place in Matewan, West Virginia, circa 1920, where the town's coal miners labor under miserable, unhealthy conditions. Joe Kenehan, a rebellious union leader and a newcomer to Matewan, organizes the miners, resulting in a violent rebellion against their oppressors.

The year is 1920, the setting Matewan, West Virginia, where the town's coal miners labor under miserable, unhealthy conditions. Enter Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), a rebellious union leader who wants to organize the West Virginian miners, as well as the Italians and blacks brought in as workers. Based on a real massacre in Matewan that started the 1920-1921 Coal War between miners and coal company thugs, Matewan subverts the convention of Westerns like High Noon. Kenehan is not the drifter who will save the miners with his skill at a six-shooter; rather, he is a pacifist whose message of non-violent resistance the miners have difficulty accepting. The story is divided into four parts, alternating between times when Kenehan prevails and times when the instinct for revenge against the coal company wins out. The first large-scale historical epic made by director John Sayles (who once worked in the Meat Packer's Union), Matewan is a subtle strike against the anti-union climate of the 1980s and a moving portrait of the difficulties of collective action.