Blue Collar (1978)

Blue Collar (1978) (DVD) (*)

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Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Mono )
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Mono )
French ( Subtitles )
German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
German ( Mono )
German ( Subtitles )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Spanish ( Mono )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
108 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1978 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Paul Schrader

Written By:
Paul Schrader
Leonard Schrader

Actors:
Richard Pryor ..... Zeke Brown
Harvey Keitel ..... Jerry Bartowski
Yaphet Kotto ..... Smokey James
Ed Begley Jr. ..... Bobby Joe
Harry Bellaver ..... Eddie Johnson Union President AAW Local 291
George Memmoli ..... Jenkins
Lucy Saroyan ..... Arlene Bartowski
Lane Smith ..... Clarence Hill, Union Steward
Cliff De Young ..... John Burrows
Borah Silver ..... Dogshit Miller, Foreman
Chip Fields ..... Caroline Brown
Harry Northup ..... Hank
Leonard Gaines ..... Mr. Bird, I.R.S. Man
Milton Selzer ..... Sumabitch
Sammy Warren ..... Barney
Jimmy Martinez ..... Charlie T. Hernandez, Loan Shark
Jerry Dahlmann ..... Superintendent
Denny Arnold ..... Thug
Rock Riddle ..... Blond Thug
Stacey Baldwin ..... Donny Bartowski
Steve Butts ..... Bob Bartowski
Stephen P. Dunn ..... Flanagan
Speedy Brown ..... Blue
Davone Florence ..... Frazer Balchin
Eddie Singleton ..... Ali Brown
Ava Singleton ..... Aretha Brown
Vernetta Royster ..... Neighbor
Jaime Carreire ..... Little Joe
Victoria McFarland ..... Doris
Gloria Delaney ..... Party Girl
Rosa Flores ..... Party Girl
Crystal McCarey ..... Party Girl
Debra Fay Walker ..... Party Girl
Gino Ardito ..... Detective
Sean Fallon Walsh ..... Detective
Vincent Lucchesi ..... Newspaper Reporter
Jerry Snider ..... TV Reporter
Colby Chester ..... TV Reporter
Donl Morse ..... Union Member
William Pelt ..... Union Member
Tracey Walter ..... Union Member
Almeria Quinn ..... Union Secretary
Lee McDonald ..... Security Guard
Rodney Lee Walker ..... Boy in Dime Store
Jimmy Williams ..... Union Member with Broken Leg (uncredited)

Synopsis:

Three workers, Zeke, Jerry and Smokey, are working at a car plant and drinking their beers together. One night when they steal away from their wives to have some fun they get the idea to rob the local union's bureau safe. First they think it is a flop, because they get only 600 dollars out of it, but then Zeke realizes that they also have gotten some 'hot' material. They decide to blackmail their union. The best reason for that is the union itself. All three are provoked by the fact that the union claims to have lost 10,000 dollars by their robbery.

Paul Schrader's directorial debut examines the trials of Detroit autoworkers living at the mercy of a heartless corporation and a corrupt union. Surviving from paycheck to paycheck, Checker Cab assembly linemen Zeke (Richard Pryor), Jerry (Harvey Keitel), and Smokey (Yaphet Kotto) scrape by and take pleasure in a few rounds of beer or bowling (and occasional illicit amusements). But when their money troubles pile up, Jerry and Smokey join Zeke in a desperate plan to steal cash from their local union office. Along with a piddling $600, they unexpectedly swipe evidence of union corruption. Deciding to use it for blackmail, the men discover instead how powerfully malevolent the union can be in a system that counts on petty divisiveness to keep the larger power structure intact. Inspired by stories of real-life disillusionment, Schrader and his brother/co-writer Leonard Schrader took on politically difficult issues of race and corporate labor, infusing the indictment of unions with a suggestion of post-Watergate paranoia about forces beyond the union that keep workers in their place. From the opening sequence of the assembly line to the final evocative freeze-frame, Schrader maintains an atmosphere of gritty realism, with the lead trio lending low-key dramatic force to a situation beyond their control. Too downbeat for a late '70s audience increasingly drawn to happier fare, Blue Collar flopped, yet it did earn Schrader critical accolades. Although he has reportedly since disowned the film, Blue Collar remains one of Schrader's best works, with Zeke and Jerry powered by the same sense of simmering frustration that would explode so effectively in Affliction two decades later.

Three guys, two African-American and one Polish, work on the production line in a Detroit automobile factory, and they are fed-up with the conditions. It dawns on them that their workers' union is doing them no greater good than their screwed-up bosses. So the trio pulls off a clumsy robbery at union HQ, in which they only gain accees to some suspicious documents that point to union links with organized crime. Suddenly they're out of their league: violence, paranoia, rivarly, and recrimination erupt around them.

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 20 July, 2015.