Movie Review: The Molly Maguires

Date: 1970

Director: Martin Ritt

Summary: Life is hard in the anthracite coal region of 19th-century Pennsylvania, especially for the Irish workers who seem trapped in a hopeless cycle of poverty and dangerous work.  But one group of men – a secret society of Irish Catholics known as the Molly Maguires – has decided to fight back.  Using covert acts of sabotage and assassination, the Mollies terrorize the coal operators and the police who they feel have wronged them for so long.  But now there is an informer among their ranks, and he may prove more dangerous to the Mollies than any coal operator has ever been.

Review:  The Molly Maguires is an interesting movie, from a Catholic perspective, for at least two reasons.  First, it tells a part of our collective history.  And second, it introduces the theme of social justice while showing what can happen in its absence.

Though the story of the Molly Maguires has been part legend from the start and continues to be shrouded in mystery, there is truth in that story that is worth being told.  In the second half of the 19^th century, many Irish Americans lived and worked in coal patch towns.  Poverty and violence were a constant reality and, in the decades following the Civil War, Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region found itself in the national spotlight when a series of assassinations and other violent acts against coal authorities were attributed to a secret society of Catholic Irishmen.  Detectives got involved, and in the end several men hanged for it.

The movie, necessarily, states as fact some things that might not be true.  It names the Mollies and their motives while fully analyzing the perspective of the man – an Irish Catholic himself – who agreed to find the Mollies and set them up for arrest and execution.  Though the writer and director had to take some creative license with history, they reach to the core of some very real themes that are as relevant today as they were in the 1870s.  Viewers are led to sympathize with the grievances of the Mollies, but they cannot endorse murder as an appropriate response.  They struggle with one character’s comment that this fight is like a war, and have to wonder if the rules of war could apply to this situation, with some “soldiers” drawn reluctantly into battle by the simple nature of their job title or ethnicity.  They have to look at the character of McParlan – the informer – and decide if he is more or less guilty than the Mollies.  Is he justified to turn in the assassins?  What if he admits that he does it not in the name of justice, but because it is his chosen way to find a better position in society?  Is anyone in the story wholly innocent?  Is anyone entirely guilty?  If there is a blameless course of action, what can it be?

Though some historians find fault with the factual accuracy of the movie, it powerfully draws attention to the most relevant questions brought up by the Molly Maguire events.  The movie tells a good story, and it does it well.  Furthermore, its cast includes Richard Harris and Sean Connery, so Dumbledore and James Bond unite to share with us this important piece of American Catholic history.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

Goodreads: The Fellowship of the Ring
Series: The Lord of the Rings #1
Published: 1954
Source: Purchased

Summary: A young Hobbit discovers that he has come to possess the One Ring, forged by an evil lord to find the other Rings of power in order to corrupt them and their works and bring the world into his control.  He sets off on a quest, aided by eight companions, to destroy the Ring in the only way possible.  He must walk across Middle-Earth and into the country of the enemy and then cast the Ring into the volcanic fires in which it was made.  The fate of the world is hanging around his neck.

Review:  It is always difficult to review a work that one loves, and it is even more difficult to review that work in pieces.  Though The Fellowship of the Ring is often cast as the first book in a series, it of course is really the first volume in what was written as a single book, a single story.  Publishers and a paper shortage were the causes of the resulting “trilogy.”  So though what is in Fellowship is good, it is not complete, and readers are left on a lakeshore wondering not just if Frodo will succeed in his quest, but also whether he is even close to his goal at all.

For although The Lord of the Rings is about Frodo’s journey to Mount Doom, and the journeys of others who are trying to pave his way, The Fellowship of the Ring is not.   Readers unfamiliar with the story (Are there many left after the release of Jackson’s movies?) will not even know that Frodo intends to go into Mordor at all.  Here his goal is first to get to Rivendell.  To get to Rivendell and hand this burden to someone else.  Someone, we must assume, bigger and stronger and better equipped to deal with the serious matters of the world.  When Frodo says, “I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way,” it is a surprise, and one that sets the tone of the entire story.  Here we see a small Hobbit become large and know that there is something surprising in each of us, as well. 

And this amazing story is told in absolutely beautiful language.  Tolkien was a philologist and deeply interested in words, so the ones he used in his books were chosen with care.  In The Lord of the Rings he uses language that evokes the spirit of the Middle Ages (which we most often associate with knights and deeds of honor), though of course he is not writing in Middle English at all, or even drawing upon the standards like “hark” and “prithee” and “thou”  that make so much fantasy sound ridiculously clunky.  Many readers think Tolkien’s writing sounds “old,” but with care they might find it is his sentence structure and not his vocabulary at all.  In fact, hints of his modern Englishness often slip into the text, if less often than in The Hobbit.

Poems scattered throughout the work give a sense that there is a deeper history propping the world of this book up.  Readers learn about the cultures and their values through their poetry and the subjects they preserve in it.  Elvish poems tell tales from Tolkien’s Silmarillion and hint at all the people and deeds of Middle-Earth that had passed before this Second Age even began.  Hobbit poems speak of food and comfort or silly tales of trolls.  Poetry is not often Tolkien’s strongest suit, and some readers like to skip it, but in truth much is missed when they do, including simply some really good stories.

In terms of themes, we have not yet come completely to the big ones: the struggle between good and evil, Sauron’s attempt to steal God’s role and create, the price of studying too closely the arts of the enemy.  Here, we have friendship.  Though of course this strengthens in later volumes, we begin to see here the three Hobbits who insist on accompanying their friend Frodo on a dangerous journey simply because they do not want him to go alone.  At first, they invite themselves to Bree and then to Rivendell.  Then they invite themselves farther, intending to go with him as far as Mordor.  They plead for the opportunity to do so, for Elrond in all his wisdom would have sent them home.

The rest of the Fellowship (but Boromir?) is loyal, and we see bonds begin to grow there as well, including between Legolas and Gimli who will finally overcome all the prejudices of their people.  Yet the best friendship we see is among the Hobbits, the everyday little people who are more like us than are the great heroes like Aragorn.  C. S. Lewis says in The Four Loves that “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival,” but here he appears to be wrong.  Without Sam and Merry and Pippin’s friendship, Frodo would not have survived, perhaps even failing far from Mount Doom, right at the beginning when he was still near the Shire.  The friendship between Frodo and Sam is perhaps one of the most beautiful ever written.

The Lord of the Rings is undoubtedly an exciting tale, one that finds fans because it offers heroes and swordfights and a frighteningly power evil.  Yet its greatest strength and the secret to its survival as a classic lie in its portrayals of truth and human nature, even if it is sometimes embodied in Elves or hobbits or dwarves.  Because The Fellowship of the Ring starts this epic adventure, it has a little more time to offer pictures of the home that make fighting evil, of any kind, worth it.  It is the most directly happy and hopeful of the volumes and a beautiful beginning. 

Movie Review: Pope John Paul II

Date: 2005

Director: John Kent Harrison

John Paul II, an inspiring film starring Jon Voight and Cary Elwes, chronicles the life of the late Holy Father and his amazing journey from his struggles as a young adult and priest in Communist Poland to his astoundingly influential papacy.  While many Catholic movies that portray the lives of the saints tend to be of rather poor quality, John Paul II features tremendous acting talent, an excellent script, and a timeless story that will inspire generations to come.

Viewers who are unfamiliar with the life of John Paul II will be surprised to learn that the many struggles John Paul II endured in life served to advance his knowledge of God.  For example, his work in a quarry helped him come to an understanding about the ultimate purposes of work, that work is primarily a means by which a person finds his or her salvation.   When confronted with the malice of Communism, which he described as an “abyss of evil”, he decided that his best response could only be an “abyss of love”.  Thus, it was through the evils of Communism that John Paul II felt called to become a priest.  Once a priest, John Paul II spent much time with young people, and came to develop his theology of the body, or his understanding that sexuality is a reflection of the divine Trinity.  The teachings of John Paul II become much clearer upon learning the key events that comprise his life.

John Paul II is an excellent movie that depicts the journey of a man who, in attempting to follow God’s will and humanity’s universal call to love, becomes one of the most influential popes in history.  Jon Voight inarguably deserves his Emmy nomination for his powerful portrayal of one of the most inspiring individuals of our generation.  

Looking for...a Clean Court Romance

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

On his deathbed, Meliara’s father exhorts a promise that she and her brother will raise an army against the tyrant king and claim their right to the throne.  With little men and fewer resources, the two declare their intent to the country, hoping that others will rally to the cause.  As complicated as war proves, however, nothing can prepare Meliara for the resulting peace.  At court intrigue and treachery hold sway, and Mel does not know whom she can trust.  Her worst enemy, however, may not be anyone at court, but her own reluctance to face her past and admit her mistakes.

The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal

Sinda grew up believing that herself the princess and the sole heir to the crown.  On her sixteenth birthday, however, she learns that the king and queen substituted her for their newborn daughter in hopes of diverting a prophecy that foretold the death of the true princess.  Now that the time for the prophecy to be fulfilled has run out, Sinda finds herself cast out of court and into the hard life of a peasant.  Angry and confused, Sinda has to decide who she is and what she really wants from life if she ever wants to find peace. 

Movie Review: The Diary of Imaculée

Date: 2006

Director: Peter LeDonne

Summary: In April of 1994, the president of Rwanda died when his plane was shot down in Kigali.  His tiny country – already suffering from built-up political and ethnic tension – immediately descended into civil war characterized by the genocide of 800,000 people.  In the small second bathroom of a sympathetic pastor, eight women hid for three months.  One of those women, twenty-four-year old Immaculée Ilibagiza, knew that many of her friends and most of her family were dying.  But she fought to hold on to her faith in God and in her own future, and lived to share her story with those who were willing to listen.

Review: Immaculée’s story is a powerful one.  While the violence of the genocide is horrifying, the world’s response to it sobering, and the young woman’s survival nothing short of miraculous, the most remarkable part of this tale is the faith Immaculée held on to as the world fell apart around her.  In the midst of fear and anger, she was heroically steadfast in her trust in God’s protection and eventually found the forgiveness she knew she would need to have a chance at peace after the violence.

The Diary of Immaculée is not the only medium Immaculée Ilibagiza has used to tell the story of the Rwandan genocide.  She – with the help of author Steve Erwin – has also written the 2006 memoir Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.  And, in this reviewer’s opinion, you should read the book first.

The book tells the narrative of the Rwandan genocide in a way that can make sense to a reader who has no knowledge of that history, and it tells the narrative of Immaculée’s part in that story.  It describes her family and her friends and traces her spiritual struggle and growth as she fights to survive not just physically, but also emotionally and spiritually, as the violence escalates in the world outside her bathroom.  The film – a short 38-minute documentary – is a good companion to the book.  It shows the beautiful landscape of Rwanda, offers photographs of and interviews with the people described in the book, and traces Immaculée’s footsteps as she goes home to visit the sites of fond memories and nightmares.  But is does not have the same depth as the book, especially in terms of Immaculée’s spiritual journey, and the information conveyed is sometimes out of order and a little difficult to follow.  The film is powerful in its own right – because the images are moving and Immaculée’s voice makes her story more personal – but it is a film that is much more meaningful with its book companion than without it.

Content Reviews: YA Witches

Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

Goodreads: Born Wicked

Series: The Cahill Witch Chronicles #1

Publication Date: Feb. 7, 2012

Source: Library

Summary:

As witches, Cate Cahill and her two younger sisters have always been in danger.  Witchcraft is feared in New England, and the Brotherhood is always looking for an excuse to haul women away to Harwood Asylum or to some mysterious fate.  But when Cate finds their mother’s diary, which talks about a prophecy of three sisters with powers, she learns they may be in more peril than she had dreamed, not only from the Brotherhood, but from others willing to use their talents for their own ends, and even from each other.

Conclusions:

Obviously, there is witchcraft in this book.  The Brotherhood, who are the men in charge of government on every level, teach in the Sunday schools that witchcraft is bad, a gift from the devil.  The Brotherhood, however, are the obvious villains in the story, cruel men who oppress women and spy on everyone in their eagerness to condemn the sins of others.  Their opinions are generally meant to be discounted by the reader.

Witches, it seems, can be either good or bad, depending on how they use their power.  The protagonists, clearly, are good ones.  Cate does not particularly like her own magic, having inherited from her mother the thought that it is a curse that mainly puts her and her sisters in danger.  Her sisters use their magic mostly to amuse themselves or to retaliate in minor ways against the other sisters when they are angry.  No one is doing terribly wicked things here.

The theme that women are being oppressed and are expected to act like silly, frivolous dolls runs strong throughout the book.  Cate and her sisters are somewhat exceptionally educated for their society and like to flout other societal roles.  Cate often mentions, in conjunction with the Brotherhood’s hatred of witches, that they punish lesbians equally as harshly.  She is in favor of homosexual couples, and one such couple forms and kisses during the story.

The romance between Cate and her suitors is kept to kissing.

Chime by Franny Billingsley

Goodreads: Chime

Series:  none

Publication Date: March 17, 2011

Source: Library

Summary: 

Briony has always known she is wicked.  Her stepmother told her to hide her powers and to never use them or tell anyone else.  But now her stepmother is dead, and a handsome young men has come to board at her house instead.  And he seems to think that Briony is not wicked at all.

Conclusions:

Unlike in Born Wicked, the witchcraft in Chime appears to be unanimously frowned upon.  Briony despises her own witchy powers and the terrible things she believes she has done with them when she became overly jealous or angry and lost control.  She spends the majority of the book attempting to suppress her witchcraft and reminding herself what a horrible person she is, so she will not be inspired to use it again.  This self-hatred is at times excessive, although the reader can see the differences between Briony’s own thoughts and the reality of the situation.

All the other witches introduced in the book are evil.  The Old Ones, who seem to be things like river spirits that are more powerful than witches and older than them, can be either dangerous or harmless, depending on their own personalities.  They are part of the nature of the area, and their assumed extinction in the future, as technology takes over, is mourned even though the area will become much safer for travelers.  As it is, anyone who enters the swamp must carry a paper with a Scripture verse in order to defend against death or worse.

The romance in the story is clean.  Briony is the daughter of a pastor, who adheres by his rules even if she sometimes dreams of being as free as other young people, and Eldric, the love interest, likes to be chivalrous.

Awakening by Claudia Cangilla McAdam

Goodreads: Awakening

Series: None

Published: 2009

Source: Borrowed

Summary: Ronni does not understand why Jesus had to die for her.  Rather than attend Mass or even celebrate the Triduum with her mother, she would prefer to spend time with her friend Tabby.  Thus, when she awakes to find that she has travelled back in time to the last days of Jesus, she forms a plan to save her Savior.  As she watches and learns from Jesus, however, she begins to realize that the best thing she can do might be to leave history unaltered.

Review: McAdam makes history come to life as she cleverly inserts tidbits from the Bible into her story, down to an explanation of the naked young man in the Garden of Gethsemane.   Readers will feel as if they have truly travelled back in time with Ronni and they, like her, will want to take this opportunity to watch and learn from Jesus.  The book is history lesson, theology lesson, meditation, and a Bible trivia scavenger hunt all in one.

The author does not hide her intention to teach with this story and older readers especially may find that the didactic purpose has a tendency to interrupt the plot.  The action, however, never flags, even when the audience can discern the not so subtle messages behind it.  In fact, so much adventure and excitement occurs that it sometimes defies the suspension of disbelief.  The question arises: would a proper Jewish young woman and her friend really so flagrantly disobey all the laws?  Not only the religious ones that they feel Jesus has replaced with the new covenant, but also the legal ones?  Readers will understand that twenty-first century Catholic Ronni does not hold much with the laws of uncleanliness, but when she convinces a friend to attempt to jail-break Jesus, it all suddenly becomes too much.

If readers can accept that Ronni’s first-century friends all conveniently hold her twenty-first century values, the plot proves engrossing.  Ronni is a sympathetic teenage character with whom readers can relate even when they recognize that she often behaves foolishly.  She has real concerns not only about her crush who lives next door, but also about the meaning of life and the reason for suffering.  Her interactions with Jesus thus touch readers on an emotional level: He is not only answering Ronni’s concerns, but also speaking to them.  McAdam makes Jesus come alive, makes Him seem like a real person really concerned with each individual.  That is the true triumph of her storytelling.

Awakening skillfully uses an entertaining story to teach about the Crucifixion and to encourage readers to commit to a more personal relationship with Jesus.  It combines deep philosophical questions with a fun and funny plot and, if the answers are not as deep as one might have wished, it is helpful to remember that the story is geared toward younger readers, preferably those in their tweens.  One envisions this book mostly used for homeschooling or other educational purposes.