In 1969, Joseph 'Jock' Yablonski (Charles Bronson) is finally tipped over the edge when a coal mine disaster is brushed over by the corrupt United Coal Miners Union he firmly believed in. Deciding to run against head man Tony Boyle (Wilford Brimley) for president of the Union, Yablonski soon becomes the target of a sinister murder plot.
It's a TV movie so it hardly has the production value to really do this "based on a true story" movie complete justice. However, with Bronson and Brimley giving very committed performances, and who in turn are backed up by the excellent Ellen Burstyn as Yablonski's loyal wife, there's humanistic qualities here that make this more than a time filler.
The murky political intrigue ticks away nicely, the characterisations of the assassins is afforded relative time, and the culmination of the picture strikes both the heart and the head. Yes it is hardly high end film making, and those turned off by dialogue heavy political posturing should probably stay away, but this is a story well worth knowing.
It got me to read up on the Boyle/Yablonski case, such was the interest born out by this HBO production. Proof positive that TV movies once had something viable to offer the mature film watching public. 7/10
