Return of the Secaucus Seven
Lianna
Baby, It's You
The Brother from Another Planet
Matewan
Eight Men Out
City of Hope
Passion Fish
The Secret of Roan Inish
Lone Star
Men with Guns (Hombres Armados)
Limbo
Sunshine State
Casa de los Babys
Silver City
Honeydripper

"You want to be treated like men? You want to be treated fair? Well, you ain't men to the coal company, you're equipment. They'll use you till you wear out or you break down or you're buried alive under a slate fall and then they'll get a new one, and they don't care what color it is or where it comes from."

It is 1920 and the mining towns of West Virginia are owned and operated by the coal companies. The men are paid by the tonnage of coal they can load, and the companies keep the rate down by importing scab labor, blacks from the South and immigrants fresh off the boat. One such town is Matewan. And when the miners of Matewan go on strike, they have no idea that their action is going to put the town on the map.

The miners of Matewan are at the end of their ropes. The Stone Mountain Coal Company has brought in Italian immigrants, and now proposes to cut the men's wages. Led by Sephus Purcell (Ken Jenkins), the local miners walk out. The company is not slow to respond. To a hostile reception from the local men, a group of black miners arrive in town, among them a giant of a man whose ragged appearance has earned him the name "Few Clothes" Johnson (James Earl Jones.) On the train with them is another newcomer, Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), former "wobblie" and now a union organizer.

Joe takes a room in the boarding house run by Elma Radnor (Mary McDonnell), whose young son Danny (Will Oldham) is a miner and a lay preacher. Joe sets up a clandestine meeting at the restaurant owned by C. E. Lively (Bob Gunton), who is sympathetic to the miners' cause. Few Clothes, who has quickly realized that the coal company intends to exploit the black miners, joins the meeting and speaks his mind. The local men are hostile, until Joe takes charge and strikes a deal - if the scabs will walk out of the mine, they'll be accepted into the union as brothers.

Now the company brings in two strike-breakers from the hated Baldwin-Felts detective agency, Hickey (Kevin Tighe) and Griggs (Gordon Clapp), who commandeer rooms at Elma's place. Toting their guns, Hickey and Griggs are soon at work, trying to evict a family from the miners' camp. They are faced down by Matewan's police chief Sid Hatfield (David Strathairn) and Mayor Cabell Testerman (Josh Mostel.)

The Italians and blacks debate the pros and cons of fighting the company and joining the union. But a confrontation seems inevitable when, under heavy guard, they are forced to run a gauntlet of strikers to enter the mine. But in the face of the company's guns, Few Clothes and the Italian leader Fausto (Joe Grifasi), throw down their picks and the other men follow their example. The strike is now solid. Forced to leave company housing, the local men, blacks and Italians set up a tent camp in the hills. A night ambush by company men sparks the miners' code of revenge, and Joe once again has to try to defuse a violent situation. While the miners are in town planning retaliation, Joe is left virtually alone to face Hickey and Griggs and their men as they harass the women and children left in the tent camp. A family of 'hill people,' mountain men who have had their land stolen by the coal company, arrive just in time to save Joe and chase the Baldwins away.

Despite Joe's warning that violence will only serve the company's cause, some of the miners - including Danny and his friend Hillard (Jace Alexander) - set off to sabotage the mine. But they have been betrayed. There are ambushed by company men. Sephus sees that the traitor is C. E. Lively but is so badly wounded that he can't reach the men to warn them. Using a simple local girl, Bridey Mae (Nancy Mette), who has taken a shine to Joe, C.E. frames Joe with "evidence" that he is actually in cahoots with the strike-breakers. The strikers fall for it and Few Clothes is detailed to dispose of Joe.

Danny, however, has overheard Hickey and Griggs talking about the ruse. Though they discover him and threaten to kill him and Elma if he tells what he knows, he is able to use his sermon at the church to reveal the truth to the miners. Joe is saved, seconds before Few Clothes is about to execute him. The miners exact revenge on C.E. by burning down his restaurant but he escapes across the river to Kentucky. The union strengthens and spreads its influence, and the company decides to raise the stakes. As Danny and Hillard try to steal coal for the camp, Hillard is caught by the Baldwin agents. Danny watches, horrified, as Griggs coldly slits Hillard's throat. The company men see Hillard's murder as their chance to bring the confrontation to a head. A squad of professional strike-breakers, "gun thugs," are brought into town to carry out the evictions Sid Hatfield has forbidden. As they stalk down the main street, they are confronted by Sid and Cabell, in a last-ditch attempt to uphold the law.

Joe tries to intervene but the fuse is lit and he is powerless to prevent a bloody battle. In what came to be known as the Matewan Massacre, many men are killed - miners, Baldwin agents, Mayor Cabell Testerman. And Joe Kenehan, union man.

"They got you fightin' white against colored, native against foreign...when you know there ain't but two sides in the world - them that work and them that don't. That's all you got to know about the enemy."

Joe Kenehan lies buried in the West Virginia hills, but young Danny Radnor, coal miner and preacher, lives to spread the gospel of the union.