Matewan

Matewan (1987) is an American historical drama you can watch online on iFILM. Director John Sayles shot the film on location in West Virginia's coal country, reconstructing a 1920s labor standoff that ended in gunfire.

The town of Matewan belongs to the coal company — wages paid in scrip, rent owed to the company store, prices set by whoever owns the mine. When management cuts pay and hikes prices in the same week, the miners organize. Union man Joe Kenehan arrives to hold the local chapter together, which means convincing white, Black and newly arrived Italian workers — many of them brought in specifically as replacement labor — to stand as one. The company responds by sending in armed Baldwin-Felts agents.

Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones and Mary McDonnell all appear here before their careers took off, and the film is stronger for it — no stars to lean on, just the weight of the story. Sayles built Matewan as a study of collective action, not a triumphant one, and the final confrontation pulls no punches. Stream Matewan (1987) online on iFILM.