NateWatchesCoolMovies Harlan County War is a rare little TV movie that takes a partly fictional look at the union wars in rural Kentucky during the 1970's, when a plucky band of coal miners and their wives took to the picket line in attempt to establish better working and living conditions. The story and title of the film have roots in the union wars of the 1930's, which set the stage for this tale. Holly Hunter plays Ruby Kincaid, wife of Silas (Ted Levine) a miner who suffers through the harsh labor everyday. The townspeople are tired of the injuries, the deaths and the deadly black lung infections, and are given reluctant hope when compassionate union official Warren Jakopovich (Stellen Skarsgard) arrives to their county, promising change. Many locals are skeptical due to past corruption and disloyalty, but soon the company gets nasty and they realize that Jakopovich may be their only chance. Hunter is as fired up as she always is, her accent thicker than the moonshine everyone swills. I tracked this film down for Levine (Skarsgard too), and this is one of the best roles he's ever gotten. He's usually in character parts like the violent thug, stern general, gruff cowboy or yes, the skin stealing serial killer. Here he's just a plain rural family man, a good hearted fellow who wants the best for his kin and county. Levine works wonders playing it straight here and I wish he'd get thrown more meaty and down to earth roles like this. Skarsgard can jump between being the most terrifying psychopath to the most comforting, sympathetic characters, and plays Jakopovich with compassion and dogged determination. The character building scenes between the three actors is brilliant. I feel like there's a longer edit out there somewhere, because it jumps a bit and forgets to address one plot turn entirely, but alas it's a tough one to affordably track down and this is the only version I could get. It's made for TV and that shows at the seams sometimes, but it's still solid drama about something important, and crafted very well.

Robert J. Maxwell I'll keep this short. Martin Ritt's "Norma Rae" was a more original, less stereotyped study of exploited Appalachian workers and their tribulations, and so was Barbara Koppel's documentary of this confrontation between union organizers and the evil company they labor for.The acting isn't bad. Holly Hunter is good, as she usually is, and Stellan Skarsgard is fine as always. He's a remarkably relaxed performer, whether the role calls for villainy ("Ronin") or sympathetic understanding, as in "Good Will Hunting". Hunter's Southern accent may sound overdrawn to some, but thirty-five years ago I imagine it fit the template well enough.It's the story that sags. There are good people and evil people and none of them are particularly complex. That's more or less how Koppel's documentary rolled along too, but it's nevertheless not how life on the ground is structured. The conventions followed here are those of a soap opera, except that instead of a deceitful and vicious husband, we have a nefarious corporation.It doesn't matter that the film was shot in Canada. That has little to do with its quality. I only wish the script had given the audience a bit more to chew on, just a little food for thought, a ham hock or two, rather than Pablum.

hrhqueene As the granddaughter of a coal miner who was also a union organizer, and having been born and brought up in Appalachia, I was highly interested in the theme of this film. What a huge disappointment. Holly Hunter grunts and twangs like a deranged Daisy Mae, almost unintelligibly at times. Her accent is not at all mountain, but cartoonish. One could expect much more from an Academy Award winner.Also, it might come as a huge shock to some, but people in Kentucky and West Virginia have had electricity, running water, and indoor facilities for at least 50 years now. Not only that, but--hold onto your seat, now--most women there don't go around dressed like a Dorothea Lange photograph (and didn't in 1973, either!); nor do the children all go barefoot; nor does everyone live in rusted-out shacks.For a much more realistic picture of mine families, try "October Sky". The story is set earlier, in the 50's; but you can see that even then, people had more semblance of civilization that the dismal one-step-up-from-HeeHaw that "Harlan County War" portrays.A strange irony that this film, supposedly sympathetic to the plight of families suffering because of corporate greed, was shot in British Columbia during the film crew strike. Shame on them. Shame on me, too, for wasting money and irreplaceable time on this letdown.

happy-31 Harlan County Kentucky is a beautiful place not Vancouver in Canada were the movie was filmed.The people of Harlan County Kentucky do not talk like Granny of the Beverly Hillbillies as Holly Hunter did.Why were the people of Harlan County Kentucky left out of this movie.The coalminers strike in Harlan County Kentucky was alot more than what this movie portrayed.I was embarrassed for the maker of this movie.