Introduction
Harlan County is located in southern Kentucky and is know for the mass history with coal. This has lead to the creation of the documentary titled Harlan County, USA (1976) by Barbara Kopple. Harlan County, USA is a documentary about a group of coal miners and their family that attempt to go versus the power company. The documentary is meant to show the strife that is faced by those seen as the lesser man and her advocating for worker rights. Kopple’s native goal was to film the Miners of Democracy, but when she arrived upon the whereabouts and saw that miners had revolted and went to strike the mining company. Kopple had now seen that there is something far more grand than her original goal to contest the leader of the UMWA. In the film, you see Kopple follow along the documented families going through straits and attempt to …show more content…
It was shown that the almighty dollar is stronger than the law and stronger than feel for the people; in the documentary it was seen how often the strikers were physically assaulted by the thugs and there was nothing done to protect them. There were documented locations where they had been shot at struck though still the law did nothing because the company held the power over that region of Kentucky. There is a logical statement that was stated various times by different miner “the company had to buy mules but they could just hire a new miner”. In modern times companies like Walmart which has the power shut down a store with the threat of union or strike. Companies like Walmart can now be seen as the average man giving them the power to set up land. Duke Power had the power over the people and the coal company has gotten away with the neglect of the mines and because of that, 78 miners died. The system is meant to support everyone but it has been rigged to assist the top one
Harlan County is located in southern Kentucky and is know for the mass history with coal. This has lead to the creation of the documentary titled Harlan County, USA (1976) by Barbara Kopple. Harlan County, USA is a documentary about a group of coal miners and their family that attempt to go versus the power company. The documentary is meant to show the strife that is faced by those seen as the lesser man and her advocating for worker rights. Kopple’s native goal was to film the Miners of Democracy, but when she arrived upon the whereabouts and saw that miners had revolted and went to strike the mining company. Kopple had now seen that there is something far more grand than her original goal to contest the leader of the UMWA. In the film, you see Kopple follow along the documented families going through straits and attempt to …show more content…
It was shown that the almighty dollar is stronger than the law and stronger than feel for the people; in the documentary it was seen how often the strikers were physically assaulted by the thugs and there was nothing done to protect them. There were documented locations where they had been shot at struck though still the law did nothing because the company held the power over that region of Kentucky. There is a logical statement that was stated various times by different miner “the company had to buy mules but they could just hire a new miner”. In modern times companies like Walmart which has the power shut down a store with the threat of union or strike. Companies like Walmart can now be seen as the average man giving them the power to set up land. Duke Power had the power over the people and the coal company has gotten away with the neglect of the mines and because of that, 78 miners died. The system is meant to support everyone but it has been rigged to assist the top one