colin spoelman

The Mountain, the Miner, and the Lord follows three independent but convergent stories: a strip mine foreman, a politically active widow, and a safety inspector who tries to fight the tide of complacency at the federal regulatory agency for mine safety.

The movie opens deep underground, where a coal miner is filming his buddies with a cheap video camera. The men appear to simply be goofing off for the camera, but one of the miners demonstrates how the equipment they are using is insufficient and points out a crack in the roof. The men joke causally about death. A crash is heard and the men take off running. A second crash is heard and the tape goes blank. A siren blares. A few men stumble out of the mine, including one miner, Darren, whose leg is covered in blood. We see snippets of the aftermath: a hospital waiting room, a news report, a funeral.

The small Eastern Kentucky town of Harlan is united by mourning. But that fragile solidarity soon begins to fracture. Kyle, the foreman at a local strip mine is feeling pressure to increase production as the price of coal has gone up and demand has increased. He hires a second shift of mostly novice workers, and one careless worker on the second shift dislodges a boulder, which rolls down the hill, smashing into a home below. The home belongs to June, the window of the man holding the camera in the collapse. She moves into a seedy motel with her two young daughters.

The Mine Safety & Health Secretary in Louisville, John Cottrell struggles with his job. A new administration is putting pressure on him to rubber stamp permits and approve easements on safety fines. One case in particular has him angry—the collapse of a mine in Harlan, an event which carried a quarter of a million dollars in fines, but which his over-secretary is asking him to reduce on appeal. He vows to sue the company for criminal negligence, but his wife warns him not to rock the boat.

June begins to post flyers around town for a rally against the unsafe practices she perceives in the mining company. The community seems sympathetic, and she’s joined by a local minister, a journalist from Lexington, and several former miners. However, Kyle and a group of strip miners are growing wary of June’s efforts. A company supervisor pays an unsolicited visit to Kyle’s mine and warns him to watch for trouble. The tension plays out in the pages of the local newspaper, and on street corners in heated verbal exchanges. Even the Kentucky Senator feels compelled to weigh in, but his comments are vague and deliberately ambiguous.

The safety administrator, Cottrell, meets with a lawyer who gets an administrative law judge to issue a temporary stop-work order for the mining company, which shuts down Kyle’s operation, among others. Cottrell gets a mysterious call from the senator. Cottrell’s wife, growing uneasy with his activism, throws him out of the house. Cottrell remains convinced that his legal victory will vindicate his efforts.

Kyle and the miners are put on leave without pay when the mine is shut down. Frustrated and politically powerless, they vow to interfere with June’s rally, as it seems to be the public manifestation of the sentiment that put them out of their jobs. June and he journalist receive eerie threats. The rally begins as scheduled, but the meeting is interrupted by Kyle and his miners. The journalist tries unsuccessfully to diffuse the tension, and a brawl nearly erupts. The preacher calms everyone down, but the battle lines have been drawn.

Cottrell’s case falls apart and he is quickly fired on superficial grounds. He goes home to Harlan, to the small town where he grew up, back to a father he hasn’t seen in many years.

Ultimately, a tragic case of mistaken identity forces a reckoning. The coal company takes the threats too far and Kyle and June find themselves in a hospital waiting room, facing an awkward, futile attempt at reconcillation. There is another funeral, but there is something more permanent about this round of mourning. There is a sense that the rift in the community has always existed—ever since mining first began a hundred years prior. But though divided, there is a sense that this community will ultimately remain stronger because of so much conflict. Stronger than communities with more money, more resources, and more hope.

There are indications that life goes on. The miners at the strip job continue there, but soon the coal runs out and they are unemployed again, without benefits. The Senator is reelected unopposed and thanks the mining companies for their support. Cottrell is replaced by a mining company executive. The journalist gets reassigned to another story, but not before June gives him the tape her husband made before he died. She says “Tell the story you want to tell.” The strip mine, now just acres of rubble in the late summer sun, stretches to the horizon, never to be reclaimed.