Far from the Madding Crowd?
Richard Harris and Samantha Eggar in The Molly Maguires
In 1970, Martin Ritt (The Long Hot Summer, The Black Orchid, Hud, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Great White Hope, Norma Rae) directed a moody, atmospheric film about Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania who engaged in Labor organizing and acts of sabotage in the 1870s. The cast was phenomenal; Sean Connery, the aforementioned Eggars and Harris, Frank Finlay (in the Twenty), Anthony Zerbe, Anthony Costello, to name a few.
The film explores deeper themes than just than exploitative labor relations in the 19th Century. Irish-ness. Does a national history of revolutionary violence follow you? Assimilation and becoming “American.” Violence versus success in a culture as a pathway to improvement. The justification of violence as a method in a cause the instigator knows or admits to be futile. Secret organizations and informers (a subject Ritt knew quite well).
Amazing cinematography by James Wong Howe evokes the gloom and isolation of the pits and coal towns and the interiors are as claustrophobic as the mines themselves. And the community itself, as portrayed by Ritt is so isolated in a cocoon that you’d think it was in Ireland. Or the Midlands. Certainly not Pennsylvania.
The haunting, lonely score by Henry Mancini completes the tone and mood.
The Sixty:
The Eighty:
The Hundred:
The One Twenty:
“But you didn’t come here to chat. Nor to ask questions or say farewell, @Jason_Levine.”
“We’ll just leave it that I came, then.”
“You came for absolution.”
Terrific film. Stayed with me for a long time. I seem to have gotten a bit under the weather, so please be patient for the next 20.
tomchick
2768
That 120 looks like James Bond putting on a fake mustache to be in disguise.
-Tom
Kingpin?
Nice Pennsylvania theme-continuation, @Jason_Levine
The sharp-eyed @Navaronegun takes it quickly! This is, of course, a very different Pennsylvania than The Molly Maguires.
40:40
60:60
80:80
100:100
You’re on a gravy train with biscuit wheels, @Navaronegun.
My kind of comedy.
New Twenty in a shake of a lamb’s tail.
This Twenty is flavorful.
It’s probably a film about the conquest of Brazil by the Portuguese (Cunhambebe was a famous Tupi chief). There’s a movie by Manoel de Oliveira named “Os Canibais” (the English title may be “The Cannibals”, but I prefer not to check); however, I haven’t seen it, and don’t know anything about it. But de Oliveira is pretty much the only Portuguese director I know, and he loves historical pieces, so yes, I will blindly try “Os Canibais”.
CraigM
2777
Precisely what I thought since the first shot, however it is a genre I am not well versed in.
As someone who likes to think of himself as a film buff, I’m beginning to find Navarone’s skill at this game pretty frightening.
I have a feeling I’ve read about this movie, but it’s a long title and it’s not coming to me at the moment.
Personally, my first thought after having seen the first shot was a “Cannibal Holocaust”-like movie, so I was pretty damn far from de Oliveira!
And yes, @Gordon_Cameron, I’m also quite impressed by Navarone’s skill. All the more since I’m not at all a film buff myself! I didn’t think it was possible to guess Tokyo Tribe with only the first image.
IDK. If I see it, I remember it. That movie was unforgettable, and not in a good way.
Do you mean Tokyo Tribe, or the one we’re trying to guess?
