Matewan

Cinecom Pictures | Release Date: August 28, 1987

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

73	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Matewan is beautifully shot, and there is not a weak performance in the film. Jones is a tower of dignity; Cooper is the epitome of quiet strength; and Oldham glows with the passion of a zealot, first for God, then for the union. Read full review

100

Jay Boyar

The movie works the way Westerns have always worked: In clear, simple terms and with straightforward dramatic devices. Read full review

Vincent Canby

There's not a weak performance in the film, but I especially admired the work of Mr. Cooper, Mr. Tighe, Miss McDonnell, Miss Mette, Mr. Gunton, Mr. Strathairn and Mr. Mostel. They may be playing Social-Realist icons, but each manages to make something personal and idiosyncratic out of the material, without destroying the ballad-like style. Read full review

Desson Thomson

Add uniformly good acting to Sayles' script of dark coal pits, West Virginia spirit and cowboyish melodrama and you have stirring cinema. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

It possesses a mythic clarity, yet there's also a welcome complexity at work, in the vivid characterisations and the unsentimental celebration of community and collective action. The result is witty, astute, and finally very moving. Read full review

EmpireKim Newman

Chris Cooper's superb performance and numerous authentic details makes this a little gem. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

When this movie stumbles, it stumbles honestly and sympathetically, but, when it succeeds, it makes history sing. [11 Sep 1987]

David Ansen

This moving, engrossing work shows that Sayles is as valuable a chronicler of our past as he is of our present. [14 Sep 1987, p.82]

Jonathan Rosenbaum

If Sayles's bite were as lethal as his bark, he might have given this a harder edge and a stronger conclusion. But the performances are uniformly fine. Read full review

Vicki Sanders

The subtle patina of make-believe created by Sayles' directorial techniques gives Matewan an old-fashioned feel that separates it from the harsh, blood-and-guts style so popular among contemporary filmmakers. [09 Oct 1987, p.D5]

Staff (Not Credited)

Matewan is a heartfelt, straight-ahead tale of labor organizing in the coal mines of West Virginia in 1920 that runs its course like a train coming down the track. Read full review

Gene Siskel

John Sayles has directed an authentic looking and sounding film, featuring cinematography by the great Haskell Wexler. [02 Oct 1987, p.A]

Richard Corliss

With his round, ruddy face, Tighe always seems on the verge of derisive laughter or flash-fisted rage; it's enjoyable guessing which fever will surface first. The rest of the movie is less entertaining, a righteous homily without the grits. Read full review

Dave Kehr

Sayles must have meant his movie to stir and provoke, but the self-contained look of it yields something else-a sense of quaintness, of harmless nostalgia. Read full review

Rita Kempley

Riddled with labor rhetoric, this coal-dusted tragedy wavers between well-acted propaganda and historical burlesque. Rambo's reactionism seems almost subtle by contrast. Read full review