Its top-notch cast - Sean Connery as a rebellious coalminer, Richard Harris as a mining company agent provocateur and Samantha Eggar as Harris's above-the-ground love interest - whets the appetite, so it is sad that the end result proves so disappointing. All the effort here has gone into the depiction of mining conditions in 19th-century Pennsylvania - the film looks completely authentic - but the script seems to have been written by a mechanical digger. Every scene rams home a message, and Martin Ritt directs not from the camera chair but from a soapbox. Despite its good intentions, it becomes a bit of a bore, and it isn't in the same league as John Sayles's similarly themed Matewan.

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1876. A secret society of Irish coal miners, bond by a sacred oath, put pressure on the greedy and ruthless company they work for by sabotaging mining facilities in the hope of improving their working conditions and the lives of their families.