Though flawed by a clumsy narrative structure that is sometimes confusing, filmmaker Barbara Kopple’s stirring picture of the still unfinished struggle for labor justice has the raw power of reality and the passion of the workers’ cause. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.įilmed during a bitter 13-month coal strike in eastern Kentucky, the documentary examines the strike’s origins, the working and living conditions of the miners and the violence that breaks out between the pickets and strikebreakers. The Motion Picture Association rating is R - restricted. The OSV News classification is A-III - adults. Restrained depiction of labor violence, including soldiers firing on workers and their families and the castration of a dead body, casual sexual relationships and brief nudity. Director Claude Berri’s sprawling, large-scale production dramatically re-creates the historical period, portraying its oppressive social injustices from the perspective of an impoverished worker’s family and their struggle for elemental human rights and some modest measure of human dignity. But with hunger, soldiers and scab labor undercutting their resolve, some return to work only to be trapped when the mine is flooded by an anarchist (Laurent Terzieff). (Lionsgate Home Entertainment also available on Blu-ray)Įvocative French adaptation of Emile Zola’s novel about the inhuman working conditions of 19th-century coal miners who decide on a strike (led by Gerard Depardieu) when their meager wages are cut. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 - parents strongly cautioned. Some violence, racial slurs, a few uses of profanity, at least one rough term, occasional crude and crass language. Together with the educational significance of the film as a whole, believers will especially appreciate the fact that Chavez’s Catholic faith is always in the background and sometimes front and center as this meditative take on his story unfolds. But his single-minded dedication to achieving justice through nonviolence - which, at one point, leads him to undertake a prolonged, life-threatening fast - exacts a toll on his supportive wife (America Ferrera) and alienated eldest son (Eli Vargas). In director Diego Luna’s leisurely paced dramatization, Chavez struggles against the oppressive machinations of various farm owners (most significantly John Malkovich). Understated but valuable portrait of the famed labor leader and pacifist (Michael Peña) who, together with Dolores Huerta (Rosario Dawson), founded the union that would eventually be known as the United Farm Workers of America in 1962. Actress Karen Brown walks the picket line with fellow SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers walk the picket line in front of Paramount Studios in Los Angeles July 17, 2023.
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