“Matewan,” November 13

Wednesday, November 13, 7 p.m.

Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL

With the Boston Globe deeming the film "as pure and plaintive as a mountain ballad" and the Los Angeles Times raving "it makes history sing," writer/director John Sayles' Oscar-nominated 1987 drama Matewan enjoys a special November 13 screening at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox, this celebrated work's local presentation co-hosted by Iowa General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia and dramatizing the events of that state's Battle of Matewan, a coal miners' strike of 1920, Matewan celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. In Sayles' film, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Oscar winner Chris Cooper, in his film debut), a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson (movie, TV, and stage legend James Earl Jones) and a sympathetic mayor and police chief (Oscar nominee and Emmy winner David Strathairn) heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and the small town of Matewan's vested interests. With the aid of many and the opposition of a powerful few, they set out to demonstrate that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation, and the bottom line.

The recipient of an Academy Award nomination for Haskell Wexler's Cinematography, and a long-admired drama that received a Criterion Collection re-release in 2019, the Washington Post's Desson Howe had particular praise for Matewan's look, saying, "Cinematographer Haskell Wexler etches the characters in dark charcoal against a misty background. You get the feeling of dirt, sweat and – despite the story's mythic intentions – the grim grey struggle of it all." Variety magazine stated that "Matewan is a heartfelt, straight-ahead tale of labor organizing in the coal mines of West Virginia in 1920 that runs its course like a train coming down the track." The New York Times' Vincent Canby raved that the entire cast "manages to make something personal and idiosyncratic out of the material, without destroying the ballad-like style." And the Chicago Reader's Jonathan Rosenbaum declared that Matewan "offers a bracing alternative to complacent right-wing as well as liberal claptrap."

Matewan will be presented in Rock Island on November 13, and the 8 p.m. screening will be followed by discussion on the film and the Industrial Workers of the World mission. Admission to the all-ages event is free, and more information is available by calling (309)200-0978 and visiting RozzTox.com.