Harlan County, USA
Filmmakers loves an underdog and movies have a long tradition of supporting the rights of workers, dating all the way back to the silent era. Here are some classic movies that celebrate workers’ right to strike for better wages and safer working conditions and the sometimes unlikely allies they find along the way. Many are based on true stories, including John Sayles’ masterful “Matewan,” about a coal miner strike in West Virginia, as well as Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning documentary, “Harlan County, USA.”
“Newsies” (1992)
“Headlines don’t sell papes, Newsies sell papes!” In this exuberant and pro-worker musical, Christian Bale’s Jack Kelly leads a group of newsboys in a strike against penny-pinching newspaper owner Joseph Pulitzer. They’re aided by Bill Pullman’s kindly, reform-minded journalist and, of course, Teddy Roosevelt, who was then governor of New York.
“Norma Rae” (1979)
Sally Field scored her first Best Actress Oscar for her role as a single mother who puts it all on the line to help unionize the textile workers at an unsafe mill in North Carolina. Martin Ritt’s movie was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
“Matewan” (1987)
Chris Cooper made his film debut as a union organizer out to help striking miners in John Sayles’ drama about the real-life events of the Battle of Matewan in 1920 West Virginia. James Earl Jones, David Strathairn and Mary McDonnell co-star. Haskell Wexler was Oscar-nominated for his poetic cinematography.
“Ocean’s Thirteen” (2007)
Lest you forgot, in the third “Ocean’s” film, Casey Affleck and Scott Caan’s characters Virgil and Turk go undercover in a dice-manufacturing factory in Mexico as part of Danny Ocean (George Clooney)’s plan to take down Al Pacino’s corrupt casino owner. While on the job, they strike another blow against the “haves” by kicking off a strike to improve the working conditions of their fellow workers.
“The Efficiency Expert” (1992)
A productivity expert (Anthony Hopkins) is hired to streamline am Australian moccasin factory in the 1960s, which will surely lead to massive layoffs. Or is there hope for this quirky company and its hard-working staff? Ben Mendelsohn, Toni Collette, and Russell Crowe star in this 1991 comedy that was known as “Spotswood” in Australia.
“Christopher Robin” (2018)
Ewan McGregor plays a grown-up Christopher Robin, who must layoff a number of workers at a struggling luggage company in post-war London. Thanks to his childhood pals Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and crew, he comes up with a way to boost sales, save the company and give all the employees paid vacations!
“Made in Dagenheim” (2012)
Sally Hawkins stars in the dramatized true story of the 1968 strike at the Ford factor in Dagenham, England where the women workers walked out to protest sexual discrimination. Miranda Richardson, Bob Hoskins and Andrea Riseborough co-star.
“Pride” (2014)
George MacKay (“1917”) stars in this true story of a lesbian and gay group in London who raised money for striking Welsh miners in 1984. The mining community doesn’t know what to make of the group at first, but eventually they form strong, lasting bonds that benefits them both as they ally against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s anti-Labour policies. Utterly heartwarming and a little heartbreaking.
“The Killing Floor” (1984)
This Bill Duke-directed drama about slaughterhouse workers trying to start an interracial union won in early 20th Century Chicago won the 1985 Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize. It stars Moses Gunn, Damien Leake, Alfre Woodard, Clarence Felder and Alfred Molina.
“Strike!” (1998)
In this underrated comedy, Monica Keena, Kirsten Dunst, and Gaby Hoffman star as students at an all-girls finishing school in the 1960s who successfully stop the board’s plan to integrate it with a boys school. Part of their plan, which they pull off with mixed results: Get the boys drunk at the school dance and prove that the female students are better off without them.
“Strike” (1925)
Silent Russian director Sergei Eisenstein first full-length feature film is about a factory strike in pre-revolutionary Russia, sparked after a worker is falsely accused of stealing a piece of machinery and commits suicide. Eisenstein’s pioneering symbolic montages equate the workers to slaughtered animals.
“Harlan County, USA” (1976)
Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning documentary about the deadly 1973 miners strike in West Virginia unfolds naturalistically, with no voiceover or narration. But the strife, violence and heartbreak the miners experienced at the hands of the mining company and police comes through loud and clear.
“Germinal” (1993)
Claude Berri directs his “Jean de Florette” star Gérard Depardieu period epic based on the novel by Émile Zola about a coal miners’ strike in northern France in the 1860s.
“The Organizer” (1963)
Marcello Mastroianni reteams with “Big Deal on Madonna Street” director Mario Monicelli for this drama about a former high school teacher who tries to organize workers at a poorly run 19th century textile factory. It was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar.
“The Devil and Miss Jones” (1941)
Charles Coburn stars in this delightful comedy as a reclusive but very wealthy department store owner who goes undercover as a sales clerk to figure out why he’s being hung in (anonymous) effigy in his stores. Jean Arthur (of the Frank Capra classics “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” or “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”) is the shopgirl who thinks he’s down-and-out takes him under her wing.
