The Gilded Age Movies & TV

The Gilded Age Movies & TV

The Rockefellers (2000)

Another episode in the PBS documentary series, American Experience, The Rockefellers examines the life of the oil tycoon, and the problematic legacy he left his heirs. After tracing the rise and reputation of John D. Rockefeller, this film explores the efforts of his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to reconstruct the family's image through public service and philanthropy.

Fight Club (1999)

This David Pincher film suggests that 20th-century American culture is shallow and emasculating. Late-19th-century audiences would have found much of the film's critique appropriate to their own times, and surely, they would have enjoyed meeting Brad Pitt.

The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie (1997)

This episode from the award-winning PBS series American Experience explores the life of the Gilded Age industrialist from his impoverished Scottish birth through the construction of his steel empire to his philosophy and work as a philanthropist.

The Molly Maguires (1970)

This film plays fast and loose with the historical details, but the story about Pinkerton Detective James McParland, who goes undercover to infiltrate the Molly Maguires, a secret Irish society believed responsible for attacks on coal industry property, is based on real events.