American Dream

• Director: Barbara Kopple
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Culture & Society
• Movie Type: Biography, Social Issues
• Themes: Labor Unions, Small-Town Life, Fighting the System
• Release Year: 1990
• Country: US
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• MPAA Rating: PG13

Plot

Depicting the effects of a mid-1980s strike by the employees of a Hormel meat-packing plant in Austin, Minnesota, Barbara Kopple's Academy Award-winning documentary American Dream observes both the daily struggles of the striking workers and the behind-the-scenes conflicts amongst the union leaders. Upset at a proposed pay cut, the local union chapter begins the strike against the advice of their parent organization, hiring an outside consultant who encourages the workers. This consultant's aggressive, no-compromise approach turns the conflict into national news but also alienates management. Soon, despite the efforts of a seasoned negotiator sent by the parent union, the company has locked out the workers and hired scabs, leading to a series of violent conflicts amongst members of the community. The workers' resolve progressively fades as the battle extends into months and years, and the financial hardships they and their families suffer leads some to doubt the value of their efforts. Kopple, who had previously covered an extended miner's strike in the acclaimed 1977 documentary Harlan County, USA, focuses on the personalities and emotions behind the strike, creating a highly charged portrait of labor that is sympathetic to the workers' distress without ignoring the strike's greater ambiguities. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Review

Barbara Kopple's unflinching look at labor troubles is a potent look at organized labor's diminished stature in Ronald Reagan's America. Kopple understands that this story bears only slight resemblance to her previous foray into this territory, Harlan County, U.S.A., where determined coal miners and their strong union squared off against unyielding company bosses over basic issues of safety, job security, and decent wages. In that film, the good guys and the bad guys were clearly delineated; here, the workers, many of them women, gain our sympathy, but their enemy isn't clearly defined. In defying their own union to go on strike, the Hormel meat packers put themselves out on a very long limb. Kopple allows us to see all of this clearly, her cameras always in the right place to catch a key speech or to focus on an eloquent facial expression, as the story heads toward its inevitably sad conclusion. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Credit

Jonathan House - Associate Producer, Molly Ornati - Associate Producer, Bill Susman - Associate Producer, Gail Rosenschein - Associate Producer, Ernest Hood - Associate Producer, Esther Cassidy - Coordinator, Peter Miller - Coordinator, Barbara Kopple - Director, Cathy Caplan - Editor, Tom Haneke - Editor, Lawrence Silk - Editor, Michael Small - Composer (Music Score), Peter Gilbert - Cinematographer, James Hayman - Cinematographer, Kevin Keating - Cinematographer, Hart Perry - Cinematographer, Mark Petersson - Cinematographer, Mathieu Roberts - Cinematographer, Arthur Cohn - Producer, Barbara Kopple - Producer, Barbara Kopple - Sound Recordist

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Harlan County, USA; Norma Rae; Roger & Me; Salt of the Earth; The Big One; Harlan County War; Bread and Roses; The Take; Farmingville