Blue Collar

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Alain E @AlainE Sep 1, 2026 A big disappointment as far as I am concerned. The movie can’t decide if it is a comedy, a working class drama or a labor relations analysis. It serves a museum function showing the assembly of cars before robots and automation. Not worth the $3.99 I gave to Amazon. See more revolver.0 8 @Revolver08 Mar 15, 2026 some scenes feels offbeat, but overall good points on criminalization of capitalism See more Scott R @ScottR Feb 20, 2026 NYT 1000 films. I expect it was included for its take on labor exploitation and the effects from it. I didn’t like the writing or the acting. It was too over the top and I didn’t identify with it or the overall feel. Saw on box. See more Alec B @Alec97 Feb 21, 2024 The ending is too neat and tidy (it also underlines the movie's thesis in a way that seems unnecessary) but the performances are uniformly good and there is an attention to detail, both in the characters and the settings, that lends a lot of authenticity to the proceedings. See more Skye W @RT32336372 Oct 9, 2023 As a fan of Schrader and a huge fan of Pryor and Keitel, it's hard to admit, but this was truly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The whole thing feels like improv with no direction whatsoever. I am baffled by the great reviews here. This was difficult to watch without cringing. See more Feb 10, 2023 Paul Schrader directs a film about the blue collar working man starring the late Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto If you're rich you can buy it, if you're anything else you gotta fight for it When Detroit autoworkers Zeke Brown, Jerry Bartowski, and Smokey James decide to rob their own union, they are initially disappointed by the relatively small haul However, upon closer inspection, the three amateur thieves discover that they have made off with something potentially much more valuable than money: the union's ledger, filled with bogus figures and links to organized crime Should they blackmail the union or go to the authorities? Jerry loves his Union, Zeke demands change, and Smokey owes a debt to a loan shark over a numbers game but all of them are sick of the mistreatment of management and union brass Essentially this is both a critique of union practices and an examination of life in a working-class Rust Belt enclave The production is also infamous for the director himself having trouble personally with lots of crew and cast members after suffering a mental breakdown which almost derailed his whole career But it shows a true face of the state of labor conditions with companies screwing their workers out of their hard earned income It's true the more something is worth the less you make, the company always keeps you in your place, is it the money that makes the difference, is it more important to help ourselves than hurt someone else?, there's always a coverup when it comes to the higher ups possessing personal power over the smaller ones, everything they do is to keep the laborers in their place, it's to pit the lifers against the new boys, the young against the old, the black against the white The movie is long and more about the ethical discussions of ending the corruption It's no given that big corporates divide workers against one another The ending doesn't end as happily as you'd think But its remarkable and volatile in that 1970s gritty way with top of the line performances by the three leads especially Pryor who can be serious and not just as comedian If you can forgive the lax pacing it's much more hard hitting than you'd expect as well as most relevant politically It's remarkable too that it points a finger at the ideological hypocrites that willingly directed the destruction while pretending to defend the interests of those that suffered the most See more Read all reviews

Blue Collar

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