What makes it different from others?

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

just watch it!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"The Molly Maguires" is based on actual events which occurred in the coal mining districts of North- Eastern Pennsylvania during the 1870s, a period of great unrest in the American mining industry. The causes of this unrest were complex, and involved ethnic and religious factors as well as purely economic ones. Most of the miners had been recruited from Britain or Ireland, and there was constant tension between the mainly Catholic Irish miners and those from mainland Britain, especially Wales, who were mostly Protestants. There are few coalmines in Ireland, so the Irish miners tended to have little previous experience of the industry and hence found themselves employed in unskilled, low-paid jobs.In some respects, American miners of this period were better off than their British counterparts. The film was shot on location in a genuine 19th-century mining community in Eckley, Pennsylvania, and the solid detached wooden houses provided by the mining company are far more spacious than the cramped brick terraces which would have formed a typical mining village in contemporary Britain. Nevertheless, the work was hard and dangerous and poorly paid; at first sight the wages seemed generous enough, but so much was taken off in various fines and deductions that the miners were often left out-of-pocket. Moreover, wages were paid in tokens which could only be exchanged at the company store, a practice which would have been illegal in Britain, where workers could insist on being paid in coin of the realm.As the film opens, we learn that the miners have recently been on strike in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain better pay and conditions, but have been forced back to work by starvation. (Another factor, apparently, was attacks on striking miners by local anti-Catholic or anti-immigrant vigilantes). Despairing of being able to obtain justice by conventional industrial action, a group of Irish miners have set up a chapter of the Molly Maguires, a secret society which uses terrorist methods to achieve its aims, including sabotage and the murder of hardline coal owners or mine officials. The film tells the story of James McParlan, a former miner turned detective who is employed by the coal owners to infiltrate the society.When the film came out in 1970 it was considered a major box-office failure, despite being made on a big budget for its time and having two major stars in Richard Harris as McParlan and Sean Connery as Jack Kehoe, the leader of the Molly Maguires. Perhaps the American public during the Nixon era were not interested in a movie about working-class characters which was made from a left-wing standpoint by a director, Martin Ritt, who had been blacklisted in the fifties for his alleged Communist affiliations. (Another factor which might have alienated American viewers is that, unusually for a film set in America, all the leading parts are played by British or Irish actors). Ritt and his scriptwriter Walter Bernstein (also blacklisted) do not condone the terrorist methods of the "Mollies", and an important character is the Catholic priest who reminds his flock that violence is contrary to the ideals of their Christian faith. There can, however, be no doubt that the film's sympathies are with the hard-working miners struggling to make a decent living rather than with their grasping, stony-hearted employers.The acting is very good. The film was made at a time when Sean Connery had temporarily relinquished his Bond role to George Lazenby (although he would briefly reclaim it the following year in "Diamonds are Forever") and was looking to widen his range as an actor, and a gritty social drama like "The Molly Maguires" is about as different a film as one can get from glossy action-adventures like the Bonds. Connery's accent sometimes sounds more Scottish than Irish, but I doubt if many American viewers would have noticed this, and he gives a performance of great power and sincerity, one of his best in a non-Bond film. Richard Harris is perhaps even better than Connery, portraying McParlan as a man torn between his own self-advantage and a certain sympathy with the miners' cause. There is another good contribution from Frank Finlay as Davies, the Welsh-born police officer who acts as McParlan's controller.The film is also visually beautiful. Ritt had originally intended to make it in black-and-white, but was dissuaded from doing so by the studio; the advent of colour television had generally made black-and-white films uneconomic by 1970. It was therefore made in quiet, muted colours appropriate to its subject-matter and to the grimy, soot-blackened appearance of the area. Using this limited palette, Ritt is able to achieve a stark, sombre grandeur; particularly notable is the wordless opening sequence of around fifteen minutes. There is also a fine soundtrack composed by Henry Mancini."The Molly Maguires" was not a success when it first came out, and even today seems to be little-known. (Mine is only the twenty-seventh comment it has received). Yet in my view this is a fine film, one like Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" (also set in the late 19th century and told from a left-wing viewpoint) which deserves to be remembered for its artistic merits rather than for the money it lost at the box-office. 8/10

This is a serious film about morality and social injustice and perhaps not surprisingly it flopped at the American box office in the 1960's. Set in the Pennsylvanian coalfields of the 1870's it revolves around two characters:Jack Kehoe, the leader of the Molly Maguires,a secret society dedicated to violently fighting the enormous exploitation that was the lot of the miners working in the coalfield; and James McParlan,who as the undercover agent for the Pinkerton Detective agency is prepared to shed all common notions of human feeling and loyalty in pursuit of a "higher" justice and more obviously his own American Dream There is a strong cast including Frank Finlay and Samantha Eggar giving support to the two leading performances of Sean Connery and Richard Harris who is particularly successful at conveying some of the inner conflicts within his character's situation. However the real quality of the film lies in other directions.It deserves its Oscar nomination for art direction and the authenticity of the set placed in the almost abandoned Pennsylvania town of Ecksly is amazing.The pace of the film is more European than Hollywood and this is particularly evident in the strangely beautiful opening which with its well crafted choice of shots and sequences establishes the background of the drama. You may choose to side with the underdog refusing to be buried by the industrial machine or you may ultimately judge the Molly Maguires to to be violent thugs and murderers.However, the final shot of the film with the gallows rehearsal as McParlan finally turns his back on all that he has done leaves little doubt that the inner life of this man will have to pay a cost for the deaths he has brought about. I too enjoyed Henry Mancini's unobtrusive but effective score. This is an undervalued film that is at last like that other great flop, "Heaven's Gate",getting some of the attention it deserves.Indeed the beautifully filmed rugby match between the Welsh and Irish miners performs a similar function to the skating in "Heaven's Gate", reflecting something of the spirit and ethos of an immigrant community.Well worth a viewing. There is much to enjoy.

The first things that stand out to me in the positive about this film (as the title indicates) are the music and cinematography.The theme by Henry Mancini really does carry the film, and you'll find it playing back (pleasantly) in your head. This made a (for me personally) rather plodding plot more viewable. The music is excellent.The cinematography also is very good. This, combined with the music make for good art. Many shots linger and linger... in a day when watching a film may send a normal being into fits of convulsions from rapid cuts.. the shots here are deliberate and rich. The opening shot slowly and seamlessly takes you from the beauty of the morning sunrise into the gritty, dingy underground world of the coal mines.As for the plot -- what can I say? Can one argue the validity of historical drama? I suppose not. Rather than do that, I'll just say that the story itself suffered from the lack of a person with truly redeeming qualities. The characters seem to embody the environment in which they live -- grungy, filthy and tainted.I spent much of the film a bit confused about the environment, time, and place in which I had been thrust. The film supposes that you understand at least generally the dynamics between the mine management and its workers in the 19th century. I didn't, and it made it difficult to fully understand the motives of the characters involved.The story moves slowly, yet steadily towards its climax. Unfortunately, this is one of those films that leaves a big empty blank in my mind and heart after I've watched it. What am I to take away from this? It's not trying to "entertain" the audience... it's a drama with a message... but this is a film without a hero, a story without an end. Some people like a film that leaves you "hanging" at the end. I can't say as it worked for me this time.In summary, I enjoyed the music and cinematography, the acting was very good... but the story leaves you with a very empty feeling in your gut.

I love the movie. I think it's partly because some of my relatives including my father worked in the coal mines. And also part of the movie was filmed near where I grew up. It is really historical. I also liked all of the actors in the movie.When I was a boy. I remember seeing the choppers carrying the crew to other locations in the area to film other scenes. It was really neat. My wife knows some people that played extra parts in the film. Actually it was filmed at Eckley Miners Village. Near Hazleton Pennsylvania. It has become a museum that is open to the public. When they did the filming for the movie. The had to renovate some of the buildings. Eckley is an actual mining town from the 1800's.