- Actors: Jesse Jackson, Juan Munoz, Ray Rogers, Mike Kinney
- Directors: Barbara Kopple, Cathy Caplan, Lawrence Silk, Thomas Haneke
- Producers: Barbara Kopple, Arthur Cohn, Bill Susman, Ernest Hood, Esther Cassidy
- Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC, Import
- Language: English
- Region: (US and Canada This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Miramax Home Entertainment
- Release Date: Mar 2 2004
- Run Time: 98 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0000DZTKP
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Product Details |
Product Description
Amazon.com essential video
Director Barbara Kopple's Oscar-winning rendering of a crippling strike at a Minnesota meat-packing plant may look dated, but the underlying theme of individuals crushed by big business remains all too timely. Using a briskly engrossing combination of first-person interviews, news broadcasts, and fly-on-the-wall encounters, Kopple creates an indelible document of a community's dissolution at the hands of larger forces. (The film is clearly on the side of the workers, but at the same time it refuses to ignore the petty infighting that eventually helped contribute to their ruin.) An alternately depressing, uplifting, and often profanely funny film that, at times, echoes Michael Moore's Roger and Me , but without that movie's distancing smarm. A movie's title has never seemed quite so bitterly apt. The director, who had previously won an Oscar for the equally arresting Harlan County USA, would later go on to document yet another traumatic event with Woody Allen's Wild Man Blues. --Andrew Wright
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very educational film,
By
This review is from: American Dream (DVD)
I am a high school teacher, and I use this film as a part of a unit entitled "The American Dream." Sure, this film is titled appropriately enough, but its significance runs much deeper.Although I was just in grade school while the Hormel strike was raging, I do remember hearing about it on the news. I found this film to be a candid glimpse into the tenacity of the union struggle as well as a highlight of decisions that impacted people's lives forever. Barbara Kopple did a wonderful job of interviewing union members who felt differently about the struggle going on. Each year, while my class views the film, I wonder whatever happened to the two brothers she highlights in the film -- one who was pro-union, no matter what, and one who decided to cross the picket line to support his family. In the film, the pro-union brother disowns his brother for becoming a scab. I found that family squabble to be classic of the kind of destruction this long, drawn out union battle caused. This film represents the American Dream quite nicely. Here you have hundreds and thousands of union members who are fighting for the American Dream, but whose vision becomes a little cloudy during the struggle. I feel that Barbara Kopple did a good job of presenting the material in an unbiased way, for each year my students seem to view the film in their own ways. Not everyone comes to one conclusion as to which side was right or wrong.
5.0 out of 5 stars
No Retreat, No Surrender,
By
This review is from: American Dream (DVD)
In this amazing documentary about the Hormel strike in Austin, MN back in the mid 1980's, you can't help but understand why Unions are losing members every year.Simply, companies have become so powerful that the only way Unions can fight back is with an all-out, risky assault. In the best cases they are able to win some of their demands. All too often though, they get very little back and their personal lives and friendships are damaged. The Hormel strike is a glaring example of the Union having very few options to fight back. Soon, it becomes Union member vs. Union member in an attempt to determine the plan of attack instead of working together to fight Hormel. As a Union member and supporter myself, I came away from the documentary with even more resolve to keep up the fight.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews) 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A haunting film...,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This movie is so dramatically powerful, it's hard to believe it's real life. It's the devastating story of what happens to a small town when it's only industry turns against it. The characters are larger-than-life and the movie sticks with you long after it's over. The viewer is taken on an emotional roller coaster ride from the hopeful beginnings of the strike to the crushing end. Having family in Austin, MN (where the film takes place), I can say that this movie hits the nail on the head all too well. See this film. It's a truly moving experience.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent film about the evolution and effect a strike,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This documentary traces the development of labor unrest at a company that is planning to make substantial reductions in employees' pay. The story is told primarily from the employees' viewpoint, and includes elements of corporate campaigning, local versus international union politics, internal politics, the strike, and loss of employees' jobs. The human perspective is fully developed including emotional peaks and valleys, the strife within families, the decay of relationships between workers, and the the affect on the community. The documentary is extremely well filmed and very moving. 7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful document... but be warned...,
By Benjamin J. Zelkowicz - Published on Amazon.com
Though it doesnt achieve the dramatic heights of "Harlan County, USA" this film is nonetheless a moving and disturbing document of workers and unions in battle with management, organized labor, and themselves. I have to believe that the person below who cheered the "crushing victory" of management over people who want "to earn more for doing less" was joking. This is a film about meat packers, a thoroughly disgusting job if there ever was one, who try to organize against the Hormel company, which is trying to slash their wages by $2 (It seems to me like management wants to pay the workers less for doing more). Unlike Harlan County, USA, though, the conflict of this film is mostly within the ranks of labor. The battle between international and local unions and between different strategies is what ultimately undermines the the worker's chances for success. A cheery film this is not, but an important one that anyone who cares about our American system of labor and corporate culture should see, along with Harlan County, Roger and Me, and Matewan. Be warned that there are many shots inside the met packing plant, complete with the evisceration and decapitation of many many pigs. It made me very glad I don't eat pork...
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