When filming began, the film was intended to be about the 1972 campaign by Arnold Miller and Miners For Democracy to unseat UMWA president Tony Boyle, in the aftermath of Joseph Yablonski's murder; however, the Harlan County strike began and caused the filmmakers to change their principal subject, with the campaign and murder becoming secondary subjects.
This film was selected into the National Film Registry in 1990 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Debut of Barbara Kopple as a director.
When the film was shown in Harlan County the week after it was finished, the Ku Klux Klan had hung a goat with KKK carved across its belly next to the place where the film was screened, so it was presented under armed guard.
This film has a 100% rating based on 22 critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.