Review of Matewan

Introduction

Matewan is based on a chapter from the book "Union Dues", penned by John Sales, told in the book as a flashback. The story is based on true events and runs fairly close to the actual happenings in Matewan in the 1920s.

The story revolves around the small mining town of Matewan where the community is dominated by the harsh mine owners and their hired thugs. The company brings in Italian and Black workers to work the mine whilst they local miners are on strike and it all goes pear shaped.

The characters of Sid Hatfield, Cabell Testerman, C. E. Lively, and Few Clothes Johnson (the voice and body of James Earl Jones!) were based on real people.

This really is an excellent movie and was one I`d been looking forward to viewing on DVD as my VHS version is a bit crappy.....

Video

This movie was nominated in 1987 for Best Cinematography Oscar and it deserved it, as the whole feature is shot fantastically, from the expansive outdoor shots to the claustrophobic underground sequences.

The video itself is anamorphic and in the original widescreen ratio, needed to really appreciate the depth to the cinematographer’s art.

Unfortunately they couldn`t (or didn`t) locate a decent print so we have to suffer through some terrible dirt and scratches in places. The whole film has a 1920 `sepia look` to it that I can only hope was intentional - especially as it`s very effective and evocative of the time so that`s a good thing.

Could I detect any real differences relative to the VHS version? Not really.

Audio

Mono and slightly muddled but an improvement over the video. Hissing and crackling is easily audible in quiet moments but speech comes across well enough and the soundtrack works.


The West Virginian accent is a tad intrusive in places but I have it on good authority that it`s nicely authentic :)

Features

Erm, no subttiles but you can select a scene.

So not a lot then. But hey - it`s an excellent movie ;)

Conclusion

A vastly underrated, expensive masterpiece in the tradition of the great westerns by Sergio Leone, marred by a dodgy transfer and slightly muddled sound. The acting is flawless from a superb cast, the cinematography should have won the Oscar and to this day nobody is quite sure why it wasn`t nominated for best movie....

The film I have to recommend purely because it is so good but I`m peeved they couldn`t do a better job of putting it on DVD.