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The Molly MaguiresRating:
Release Date: 27 April, 2004 Retail Price: $9.98 OUR Price: $9.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (8 total) |
The Molly Maguires Reviews
Buying this for my husband
I saw this movie many years ago and loved it. What I've read in the most recent reviews, however, leaves out that the script is based on a real, historic trial and hanging that took place in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is notorious in that the man whose character is portrayed by Sean Connery, before being hung, placed his hand on the wall of his cell and swore his innocence. The handprint can still be seen in the jail, which is now an historic landmark. It has been scrubbed, sanded, and even painted over -- yet it still shows through. Now that it is available in DVD form, I am buying it for my husband, who I think will enjoy it. We both decend from Pennsylvania mining stock -- not Irish, but Jewish! In fact, during the mining violence of the 1920s, my uncle delivered payroll to the mines. The rules said he had to carry a gun and ammunition -- so he carried a .23 pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun shell, claiming the rules did not say the ammunition had to match the gun and he had no intention of killing anyone. . . . .
Great Talent...So-So Script
If nothing else, The Molly Maguires holds a cinema record, of sorts, with its opening sequence that runs an astounding 14:51 before the first word of dialogue is even spoken!
But how does a production with the talents of Martin Ritt, James Wong Howe, Henry Mancini, Sean Connery and Richard Harris fail to achieve "A" film status? Its script. Its attempt to show the hardships of 19th Century Pennsylvania coal miners in an industrializing United States is way to sanitized. Maybe if some of the numerous bar scenes were better utilized to illustrate the cruel brutal existance that was a coal miner, you might have a better understanding of their plight. You never really quite understand why these men are so angry.
Howe's location photography is so beautiful (another distraction from the plight) and Henry Mancini's score rates a 10--a cult favorite, impossible to find on cd. The supporting cast, including Samantha Eggar, Anthony Zerbe (the consumate guest star baddy on every TV series in the 70's and 80's), Frank Finlay and Philip Bourneuf each have their moments.
A period piece worthy of a watch as Connery and Harris do their best--if only the words were there.
Many of the sets still stand in Eckley, (Hazelton) PA, now a state museum, and continue to attract visitors to this day.
More Customer Reviews (16 total)
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