Description
Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award–winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. With a haunting soundtrack—featuring legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, David Morris, Sarah Ogan Gunning, and Florence Reece—the film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Barbara Kopple, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary by Kopple and editor Nancy Baker
- Making-of documentary featuring interviews with Kopple, crew members, and strike participants featured in the film
- Outtakes from the film
- Interview with bluegrass singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens
- Interview with filmmaker John Sayles
- Panel discussion from the 2005 Sundance Film Festival featuring Kopple and critic Roger Ebert
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: Essays by film critic Michael Atkinson and musician and writer Jon Weisberger Cover by Eric Skillman
Criterion Collection:
Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.
ESTIMATE DISPATCH 7 to 18 BUSINESS DAYS. (subject to availability).
