30 Days, Season 3, Episode 1 – I Was Born A Coal Miner’s Filmmaker
This episode is unsuitable for young viewers. To be honest, I really don’t know why.
For the uninitiated, 30 Days is an amazing program created by documentarian Morgan Spurlock. He is best known as the Oscar-nominated filmmaker of Super Size Me. In the film, Spurlock lived for 30 days on an all-McDonald’s diet and filmed the changes to his body. That idea spawned 30 Days where Spurlock or a substitute spends 30 days living in rather difficult or interesting conditions. Past episodes included a Minuteman living with an illegal immigrant family, Spurlock spending 30 days in jail, a man taking steroids for a month, and many others. This is one of my favorite programs and one of the few reality shows that truly make you think and question your belief system.
In this one, Spurlock heads home to West Virginia and one of the most dangerous professions in America: coal mining. Is coal the solution to the energy problems or is it too dangerous to the environment and the safety of the miners? We see a shot of a memorial for the miners killed on January 2, 2006 in Sago, WV. Spurlock is ready to tackle this challenge.
We see pictures of Spurlock the high school senior and a map of the US and a cameo by the Amazing Race’s Amazing Travel Line marking Spurlock’s move to New York to learn to make movies and TV. While he was earning an Oscar nod for chowing down on Big Macs, the guys he went to school with were following in their father’s footsteps and going into the mines. Mining made the lives of most WV residents possible. Including Spurlock – his dad fixed the equipment used in the mines.
Using some of the giant graphics we know and love from this show, Spurlock tells us that 50 percent of our energy comes from coal. It enables us to listen to music, surf the web, and watch TV. We are connected to the black rock. Not the Black Rock; that is a pirate ship somehow connected to the Hanso Foundation. We see picket lines and are told that environmentalists believe that coal is a huge contributor to global warming. Scientists think that too, by the way. It also leads to tragedies like the one in Sago and the one in Utah. Some want us off of coal, but with so much available in the US, others question abandoning it.
This got Spurlock thinking, what about the guys who mine coal? What is life like for the guys he grew up around who stayed in West Virginia and go underground every day to keep us all powered up? Spurlock will be working as a coal miner (apparently from weird camera angles) for the next … 30 Days.
Credits
Brooklyn. Mrs. Spurlock is not happy. Hey, it’s Alex! Remember her? The vegan girlfriend disgusted by his McDonald’s binges. Congrats guys! She is worried about “some crazy build up of gas and an explosion and that you’ll be trapped and suffocate in the bowels of some mine somewhere. Or come back with black lung… please, please be careful.” I like Alex. Spurlock is not sure what to expect. He leaves and gets some smooches on the way out. He begins the long drive to the “wild, wonderful” views of West Virginia.
Coal is a rich part of West Virginia, as is having 20% of the population admit to not wanting to vote for a black man. But we will deal with that another time. It is the second largest producer in the country of coal with 500 active mines. Coal goes through boom or bust periods - now it is booming. As a result, the average coal miner makes $65K per year. Boy, imagine what it’s like when times are bad! Coal mining accounts for twice as much as any other industry in the state. We see many mining cars, hoses, dirty guys and tons of other images during this segment. Coal is certainly king in West Virginia.
The sign says "West Virginia - Open for Business."
Spurlock had to finish an 80 hour training course before even starting his stint in the coal mines. The Rules as told in cartoon form: For the next 30 days, Spurlock is going to work regular shifts in the mine and face the same dangers as everyone else. He will also explore the impact of mining on the workers and on the environment. He will be staying with a coal miner and his family; he and his relatives have been coal mining for generations.
Spurlock comments that he is a long way from Brooklyn as he meets Dale and Sandy, his hosts. Welcome to Soot Covered Island! Dale is 53 and looks 10 years older than that. He began working in the mines right out of high school. Dale is the supervisor at the mine and makes over $100K per year. So, I should shut up I guess.
Dale is a big guy with a hardened look about him that a life in the mines would produce. He is drinking a glass of wine, which is somewhat unexpected. Sandy shows Spurlock his room and he offers to help in any way. She wants none of that. He offers to take out the garbage and do the dishes. I say, come on by, Spurlock, I’ll let you do those things. Dale cooks on Sundays and Spurlock will be helping him out with that.
Spurlock brings up black lung. Dale has a man off right now that’s got it. Dale went for a test when was “27 years in the mine” and he had nothing. Spurlock is worried about his own health. TO THE HOSPITAL!
We meet Debbie Johnson, LPN who doesn’t think that you can work in the mines and not get something. It is at this point that I start to worry about Dale.
Spurlock shows off his city-boy lunch cooler. Dale tells him that most guys carry their lunch in a bag. Why? They just do, because they’re “all the time on the move.” They also hang it “from the top” so the rats won’t get to it, because “They will get in your lunch anywhere on the bottom.” Important safety tip, and one that most jobs do not experience. We had a mouse in our office once that chewed up all of my co-worker’s business cards. Not exactly the same thing. Spurlock is a little freaked out and excited. He just needs to make sure he doesn’t get into danger and he’ll be ok.
DAY 2. 5:00 a.m. and Spurlock is up. He thinks it will take getting used to. My wife does it every day and has for a few years, so no sympathy here. He makes his sandwich and prepares for his hour commute to the mine. He yawns on the way there. Dale gets there at 2:00 a.m. Yikes! So Spurlock drives solo to Double Bonus Coal. Sounds like a bizarre slot machine. It is 6:30 a.m. and we get another working in the coal mine montage.
Spurlock is wearing a red hat to show that he is an apprentice. Not The Apprentice, although I would love to see Trump try and work here. He doesn’t get to use heavy machinery, but will get all of the grunt work. So he has that going for him.
“Grumpy” is going to make his name tag for him. I wish I knew someone named Grumpy. I am curious if the other mine employees are also named after dwarves. Spurlock shows the coin-shaped ID tag and says how morbid it is because it is designed to be used to identify your remains if you get trapped for a long time.
Danny the Mine Foreman gives the orders. Spurlock suits up, but not in a cool Barney Stinson way, but in a coal miner kind of way. Someone asks him if he is from Beckley. He is. Same guy asks if he did “that McDonalds movie.” Heh. Lots of smiles greet Spurlock wherever he goes.
He is going to be working a 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. shift and takes his first steps into the mine. It is dark and splashy. Spurlock says that the temperature dropped 20 degrees as he entered the cart. The descent is like an an entrance into a lost world. It is musty and wet and no sunlight comes this way. The ceilings are quite low and Spurlock tells us that if you turn off the light, you cannot see four inches in front of you. It is loud and I am sure quite claustrophobic. They are a mile and half deep into the mountain. There are no dwarf cities here, this is tight and scary.
The automatic digger machine cuts into the mountain and sends the coal onto a conveyer belt. But since “coal is cash” they have to make sure that nothing is left behind. James teaches Spurlock “Shoveling 101” as they gather up whatever fails to make the belt. James tells him to always shovel going with the belt, to “watch these slices” and make sure your shovel doesn’t get caught. He says you can “hear ‘em coming down the belt. If it gets caught, don’t hold onto the shovel. It’ll take you down and it will kill you.” Damn, that is some hard core job when you can get killed with your own shovel.
Spurlock says that he would like to think what he is shoveling here is powering the electricity in a Children’s Hospital, but in reality it is powering some guy masturbating in front of a computer. I wonder what site he’s looking at. Either way, Spurlock knows he is making someone very happy.
We get a montage of shoveling. He bends down, shovels and takes a breather. He eats his lunch in 10 minutes. James tells him that to be a coal miner you need a weak mind and a strong back. Our hero looks really, really beat. At quitting time, Spurlock says that he “can’t begin to tell you how tired I am,” that he was “beaten with a shovel for six hours straight and run over by a coal truck.” This is the beginning of a very long month.
Commercials – The Shield. I hear it is a great show. I have never watched it, but Chiklis will always be the Commish to me.
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