Its focus on the smoldering economic fury of working-class Americans adroitly illuminates the reasons for the backlash that politicians of both parties are finding increasingly difficult to ignore. Full Review

Rating: 4.5/5 -- Though a political film about labor unionism, American Dream is ultimately about the decimation of a social community, one that has suffered divorces, illnesses and broken friendships as a result of the conflict. Full Review

Ms. Kopple's stirring, forthright film captures an American town, the strength of its traditions and the deep and permanent ways in which those traditions can be destroyed. Her work is as important as it is good. Full Review

[Kopple's] gift is to make us feel almost as kin to the few who quit as to the many who stuck it out. There is no cruelty quite like that which gives a man or woman no choice except the surrender of dignity for a job or of a job for dignity. Full Review

Rating: 3/4 -- [An] ambitious, socially concerned documentary... Full Review

Rating: 4/4 -- Stories like the Hormel strike are too long and complicated to be told on a daily basis. Only a documentary like this has a canvas big enough for the whole picture. Full Review

A bracing hybrid, a documentary and a lamentation for those who create the country's wealth at the cost of their own dignity. Full Review