| Director | John Sayles |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 132 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $4 million |
| Box office | $2 million |
In mid-May 1920, Joe Kenehan, an ex-Wobbly with pacifist leanings, arrives in Matewan to organize the miners working for the Stone Mountain Coal Company. He sees a mob of miners—on strike because of recent wage cuts—beating up black workers who have been lured by the company into crossing the picket line. Kenehan takes up residence at a boarding house run by a miner's widow, Elma Radnor, and her 15-year-old son, Danny (himself a miner and a budding Baptist preacher). The miners resist letting imported workers, black or Italian, into their union. Their go-it-alone position is encouraged by C. E. Lively, a company spy in their ranks who tries to goad the miners into violence and secretly informs the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency of the "red" Kenehan's presence.
The next day, two Baldwin-Felts agents, Griggs and Hickey, arrive and seek residence at the Radnor boarding house. Danny at first refuses to rent them a room, but Kenehan voluntarily moves into a hotel, freeing up a room for the agents and averting trouble for Mrs. Radnor. Hickey and Griggs then start a campaign to evict union miners from company-owned houses. Mayor Testerman and Police Chief Sid Hatfield won't let them be evicted without writs from Charleston. Hatfield deputizes the men in town and tells them to go home and get their guns.
The Baldwin-Felts agents turn their attention to the strikers' camp outside Matewan, where miners and their families are living in tents. At night, strikebreakers fire shots into the camp. The next day, the agents enter the camp to demand that all food and clothing purchased at the company store with scrip be turned over to them, but are thwarted by the arrival of armed hill people, whose land was taken by the coal company. The hill people complain about last night's noise, express sympathy for the miners, and compel the Baldwin-Felts men to leave empty-handed.
Delays in receiving strike funds from the United Mine Workers of America test the patience of Danny and other miners who grow disillusioned and turn to violence in spite of Kenehan's warnings. The miners are involved in a night-time shootout with the agents. Sephus Purcell is wounded, but not before he recognizes that Lively is an infiltrator in their midst.
Lively tries to disgrace Kenehan by convincing a young widow, Bridey Mae Tolliver, to falsely accuse him of sexual assault. Lively also plants a letter that makes Kenehan appear to be the infiltrator, which leads the miners to plot to kill him. After overhearing Griggs and Hickey discuss the scheme to frame Kenehan, Danny is discovered and threatened by Hickey. That night, while preaching at the Freewill church, Danny relates a parable about Joseph that convinces the miners they have been deceived by a false story. The inebriated Griggs and Hickey are giggling in the church and not paying attention to what Danny is preaching. Lively, however, is paying attention and slips out the rear of the church, and temporarily flees town. Danny's friend Hillard Elkins runs to the camp to stop the killing of Kenehan. Meanwhile, the wounded Sephus makes his way back and informs the others of Lively's betrayal, and they burn down his restaurant.
Later, while stealing coal from the mine, Danny and Hillard encounter the agents. Danny hides, but Hillard is caught and tortured. Although he offers five names of confederates, he is murdered anyway because, as Lively reveals, the named men all died years earlier in a mine accident. Lively warns the agents that the death of a boy like Hillard will stir people up. The next day, an emotional funeral for Hillard is held at the camp.
The tension builds when Baldwin-Felts reinforcements arrive with orders to carry out the evictions. As the mayor makes one last attempt at negotiating, Kenehan comes running to try to stop the bloodshed. The sudden movement sets off a gunfight between the exposed Baldwins and the armed townspeople firing from barricades and rooftops. Chief Hatfield shoots two men and survives the battle, but Kenehan is killed and the mayor is shot in the stomach. Griggs is brought down, while Hickey escapes to Elma Radnor's boarding house, where she kills him with a shotgun. Seven Baldwin-Felts men and two townspeople are ultimately killed, along with Mayor Testerman, who dies from his wounds.
In the epilogue, the narrator explains that the mayor's wife married Chief Hatfield, who himself was shot and killed in broad daylight on the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse on August 1, 1921, with Lively delivering the coup de grâce. Hatfield's murder started the West Virginia Coal Wars.