Rating: 
Summary: A Disgrace To Movies Everywhere
Review: The movie, The Molly Maguires, was horrible if you would like to be entertained. The only part that made me start watching it with an open mind, was that Sean Connery in it. However, when I watched the first 15 minutes of it and there was no talking at all, I started to wonder if it would be a waste of my time. As for all the other reviewers saying it was a great portrayal of the mines, THEY ON SHOWED SCENES OF THE MINES FOR ABOUT FIVE MINUTES!!! It comes off like a tragic story for these very humble miners; IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH YOUR JOB, YOU QUIT OR SHUT UP!!! YOU DON'T GO AROUND KILLING THE PEOPLE YOU DISLIKE!!! If you need the money that bad, then get a new job or just put up with it!!! It was an extremely excuse for a movie, with a horrible plot. The Molly Maguires showed the murderous miners as the good and rightous side and the employers as the evil ones. The only reason I would recomend this movie is if you want to raise your blood presure!
Rating: 
Summary: CAUTION: Not to be treated as History
Review: The spirit of the industrial boom times is captured, but not in a factual way. With some exageration, and with few facts in order, scenes from the past brought alive in an excellent manner. Totally worth owning if you like action/suspense! Sean Connery does an excellent job, as usual, as does the late Richard Harris. Rumor, with good source, has it that during the making of this film, Harris went to a Hazleton, PA bar and 'hit' on somebody's wife, and was punched out on the spot. Hazleton, PA, is also the childhood home of Hollywood great, Jack Palance.......But don't treat this movie as the gospel truth - it's not even close. Viewed with prior knowledge of the period is the best way to go. Once again, Hollywood misfires its facts. Amid the Industrial Revolution, Irish Catholic, in addition to several other ethnic groups (the Irish certainly not the only ones in the mines at the time), worked in horrid conditions when having a job anywhere in the world was an accomplishment, wages were slim, and rarely was there enough to save. If you can justify the shootings and murders of people in order to exonerate a secret society, masked by an organization (the Ancient Order of Hibernians) that was supposed to be humanitarian - for other Irish Catholics. This movie is not an accurate portrayal of events, but certainly is entertaining, with a very good glimpse of what coal mining was like for many ethnic groups, including: English, Scots, Welsh, Polish, Italian, German, Bulgarian, and Hungarian individuals, not just Irish Catholics. Granted, Irish were mistreated, giving Molly Maguires, who definitely existed, a Saintly Status (which is what some people want to do), is truly ridiculous. They were hanged, caught by another very similar to their own background, in a court system somewhat flawed, red-handed, at a time when few had any tolerance for outlaws and the violence they forced on honest, hardworking communities from many diverse backgrounds. Glorify the Mollies if you must, but don't confuse them with heroes in an objective light and expect to be treated seriously. Read up on it, even the local Catholic Priests condemned them by name, "Molly Maguires," making themselves targets and getting brutally beat up for it. Irish Catholics themselves considered Molly Maguire violence outrageous acts.
Rating:
Summary: CAUTION: Not to be treated as History
Review: The spirit of the industrial boom times is captured, but not in a factual way. With some exageration, and with few facts in order, scenes from the past brought alive in an excellent manner. Totally worth owning if you like action/suspense! Sean Connery does an excellent job, as usual, as does the late Richard Harris. Rumor, with good source, has it that during the making of this film, Harris went to a Hazleton, PA bar and 'hit' on somebody's wife, and was punched out on the spot. Hazleton, PA, is also the childhood home of Hollywood great, Jack Palance. ......But don't treat this movie as the gospel truth - it's not even close. Viewed with prior knowledge of the period is the best way to go. Once again, Hollywood misfires its facts. Amid the Industrial Revolution, Irish Catholic, in addition to several other ethnic groups (the Irish certainly not the only ones in the mines at the time), worked in horrid conditions when having a job anywhere in the world was an accomplishment, wages were slim, and rarely was there enough to save. If you can justify the shootings and murders of people in order to exonerate a secret society, masked by an organization (the Ancient Order of Hibernians) that was supposed to be humanitarian - for other Irish Catholics. This movie is not an accurate portrayal of events, but certainly is entertaining, with a very good glimpse of what coal mining was like for many ethnic groups, including: English, Scots, Welsh, Polish, Italian, German, Bulgarian, and Hungarian individuals, not just Irish Catholics. Granted, Irish were mistreated, giving Molly Maguires, who definitely existed, a Saintly Status (which is what some people want to do), is truly ridiculous. They were hanged, caught by another very similar to their own background, in a court system somewhat flawed, red-handed, at a time when few had any tolerance for outlaws and the violence they forced on honest, hardworking communities from many diverse backgrounds. Glorify the Mollies if you must, but don't confuse them with heroes in an objective light and expect to be treated seriously. Read up on it, even the local Catholic Priests condemned them by name, "Molly Maguires," making themselves targets and getting brutally beat up for it. Irish Catholics themselves considered Molly Maguire violence outrageous acts.
Rating: 
Summary: A Socialist (...) Film
Review: This film is loosely based on the historical Molly Maguires of Pennsylvania, a secret group of Irish immigrant criminals who terrorized the anthracite coal fields after the Civil War. In this fictionalized film version, the Molly Maguires are sympathetically portrayed as victimized miners trying to start a labor union. As a matter of fact, however, most of the Molly Maguires who were hanged were not employed as miners, but as saloon-keepers and small-time politicians, and they were condemned by the real miner's union because of the terrorism and cold-blooded murders they committed. The screenplay author who wrote the script for this film and co-produced it, Walter Bernstein, was once a member of the American Communist Party and was blacklisted during the Hollywood red scare. The movie director, Martin Ritt, was also a blacklisted leftist. Be forewarned, this movie is essentially left-wing propoganda with little similarity to actual history. The cinematography and sets are excellent, and the soundtrack by Henry Mancini is very enjoyable. The acting of Sean Connery and Richard Harris, and the effectiveness of their "Irish brogues," are so-so.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent portrayal of Irish gangs and "Shillelagh Law"
Review: This film tells the true story of an Irish gang or 'faction' which was active in the American labour movement in themid to late 1800's. It was brought over from Ireland and further took root among the Irish coal miners of Pennsylvania. Several books have been written about the Molly Maguires, but to understand them in-depth, you need to get the books "Understanding The Molly Maguires", and "Irish Gangs And Stick-Fighting". Martin Scorcese's "Gangs Of New York" is also about Irish gangs like the Mollies, but films usually don't do full justice to this topic. Get this great, very entertaining movie, but for the whole story get the books mentioned above as well.
Rating:
Summary: Let's get several things straight...
Review: This is as good a movie about coal mining as you get until Matewan comes along. Connery, Harris and Eggar are excellent; Ritt's direction is wonderful. I am the descendent of Irish immigrant miners who worked the same fields as the film portrays, and I do not detect a false note in the portrayal of "patch" life, even after numerous viewings. BTW, the "patch" portrayed in this film is an actual town in Pennsylvania -- Eckley, about 10 miles outside of Hazelton -- and has been restored by the State Museum Commission as a bit of living history. That being said, a few additional comments: 1. "It's dark and gloomy..." -- DUH! IT'S ABOUT LIFE IN A COAL MINE! 2. Walter Bernstein's script did not have the benefit of Kevin Kenny's "Making Sense of the Molly Maguires" (1997). If he had, his script would have been very different, because the Mollies were, to a large degree, a fiction devised by Franklin Gowan to justify the virtual slavery of Irish immigrants in his coalfields. Yes, many Irish miners were hung for murder. No, these murders were never proven. These men were labor martyrs. 3. The myth of Molly violence led to the hiring of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which made its money in the 19th century by infiltrating labor organizations and framing their members (who had the temerity to suggest things like a living wage) on any number of trumped up charges to the authorities. McKenna was a particularly loathsome example of the sort of human dregs they hired. In short, this is a lost American film classic, as good in its way as John Ford's "Grapes of Wrath". It has the power to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable -- and what better can be said of a work of art?
Rating: 
Summary: Boring!
Review: This movie depicts the life of the Irish coal miners in the 1800s. I believe it is very histriocally correct. The movie in itself is very boring and I did not like it, but your not me and we may not be into the same types of movies. I really like movies that are thillers and this movie is defintly not a thiller. The only thing that held my intrest was the fight scenes. I would not advise this movie to you if you like thillers.
Rating:
Summary: This Movie was HORRIBLE
Review: This movie gave a litle idea of what life was like for the Irish coal miners. It concentrated to much on catching the Molly Miguires, to teach me anything about the harsh conditions of the mining fields the immigrants were working in. Skinny Wiener
Rating: 
Summary: THE REVIEW
Review: This movie gave me an idea of what it was like for Irish immigrants who worked in the coal mines. It conveyed the horrible conditions that the workers had to endure. It portrayed the secret society of the Molly Maguires very well. You could see both points of view, the coal miners and the owners and police. I thought the movie was very educational, while it lacked excitment.
Rating:
Summary: Very powerful movie, depicts the harshness of labor movement
Review: This movie gives viewers insight to the harsh reality of the industrialization of the United States and the exploitation of immigrants in the coal mines. The characters offer a complexity of emotions as they struggle to survive at the mercy of the powerful mining companies and corrupt police system of 1870s. Sean Connery gives a solid performance as Jack Kehoe, a Molly Maguire whose lack of trust of outsiders is penetrated by a company detective posing as a coal miner. The story is not only entertaining but also historically accurate.
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