MovieChat Forums > Matewan (1987) Discussion > Question about the final shootout

Question about the final shootout


Did the scene where Elma Radnor kills Baldwin-Felts agent Hickey with her shotgun really occur, or was it fictional?

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I think all the Radnor characters themselves were fictional

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There are only a couple of characters in this movie who really existed, and she isn't one of them. It's highly fictionalised. Even the few characters who really existed had actions attributed to them that they did not do. Hollywood likes to create basic black and white, good vs. evil stories with clear antagonists and protagonists, and real life is never like that. They also like to condense the actions of many RL characters down into just a few fictionalized ones for a more clear, easy to follow storyline, and because they don't run into as many potential legal and royalty issues with fictional characters as when they use real-life identities.

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