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The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania (2005)
Terrible
Look, I rarely take the trouble to comment on things but I feel someone has to be the voice of reason here. This documentary is the worst kind of insidious, condescending, patronizing garbage. To show the people in this community as these dirt-kicking, adorable clods is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes. This makes small town America look like sweet but dopey little cousins - which these townspeople are not. I suspect the coal miners and some of the more colorful residents are actually much more interesting than the narrator, with her infuriatingly cutesy big eyed and giggling reactions to ANYTHING, lets on. This could have been an interesting subject. It could have used a traditional pageant to show a way of life that most of us don't even know exists, even though it may be the backbone of the nation. Instead, through what I can only imagine is the filmmakers sense of "helping out the little people", this is a subtle insult to all of rural America. Whether or not anyone else realizes it yet.