MovieChat Forums > Matewan (1987) Discussion > C.E. Lively character-SPOILER

C.E. Lively character-SPOILER

posted 16 years ago by sonofbeach-sheet
5 replies | jump to latest

I tried to hear and pay attention to the movie the best I could due to the poor quality DVD; is C.E. Lively is a spy on the company's side? They were playing a charade that there was a death warrant on Joe and C.E. lied to the local girl that Joe talked about her like she was the town whore. What was the girl being used as a pawn for? Then the 2 agents talk about it when Danny is hiding in the bedroom. Did I miss something? Also, with C.E. being a local resident of the town and restaurant owner, you would think the residents would have found out sooner about him

[–] pike69wb 15 years ago

Yes CE is a spy for the company, based on a real character Baldwin detective Lively, who lived for years among the miners as a spy.

The "death warrent" mentioned by Luddie is not literally a death warrent. Lively planted some "papers from Bluefield" (the home office of the Baldwin agency) that indicated he was not who he said he was. Luddie was speaking symbolically as in, "These papers are the death warrent for Keenahan," meaning we're gonna take care of him now.

The Bridie ruse is just one more incident to get the miners to turn on Joe. Interestingly enough, its Luddie who offers a half hearted defense of Joe, "So he ain't got no sense with women, we all know how Bridie builds things up."

[–] silverwhistle 13 years ago

Charles Everett Lively was a real person, a spy for the Baldwin-Felts agency. He was one of Sid Hatfield's and Ed Chambers' murderers (he shot Ed in the head to finish him off), and died in 1962, aged 75. There's a picture of him here:
http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1423

[–] sonofbeach-sheet 12 years ago

Wow, is there any movie Bob Gunton has not played a villain? He's just as bad as the Shawshank warden in this one

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] corinnacarpenter 10 years ago

He plays the good guy every once in a while. 