Blue Collar (film)

Blue Collar (film)

Infobox_Film
name = Blue Collar



imdb_id = 0077248
writer = Paul Schrader
Leonard Schrader
starring = Richard Pryor
Harvey Keitel
Yaphet Kotto
director = Paul Schrader
producer = Allan Ekelund
music = Jack Nitzsche
cinematography = Bobby Byrne
released = February 10, 1978
runtime = 114 min
language = English
budget =

"Blue Collar" is the 1978 directorial debut of screenwriter Paul Schrader. This drama (with minimal comic elements) stars Harvey Keitel, Richard Pryor and Yaphet Kotto.

Both a critique of union practices and an examination of life in a working-class Rust Belt enclave, the film concerns a trio of Detroit auto workers: Zeke Brown (Pryor), Jerry Bartowski (Keitel), and Smokey James (Kotto). Fed up with mistreatment at the hands of both management and union brass, and coupled with financial hardships on each man's end, the trio hatch a plan to rob a safe at union headquarters. They commit the caper, but find a few scant bills in the union safe. More importantly, they also come away with a ledger, evidence of the union's illegal loan-lending operation and ties to organised crime syndicates. They soon find themselves wrestling with what to do with this newfound knowledge amidst both a union investigation of the crime and a federal agent's attempts to coerce Jerry into informing on union corruption.

The film is notable for its language, which mimics the street-level profanity found in Schrader's Taxi Driver screenplay and exceeds it in both frequency and rhythm. It is also notable for the performances of its three leads. As Schrader observes in the commentary on the film's DVD, none of the three got along with each other during the production, and fistfights between takes were not uncommon. Film scholars and fans of the film cite Pryor's performance as one of the best of his careerFact|date=February 2007, his dressing down of a union rep and a later exchange with an IRS agent considered masterstrokes.Fact|date=February 2007

The film was shot on location at the Checker plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and at numerous locales around Detroit, including the Ford Rouge plant on the city's southwest side and the Belle Isle Bridge.

Misc. Info

Agoraphobic Nosebleed's song "Thanksgiving Day" from the album PCP Torpedo opens with a sample of Zeke Brown's angry, profanity-laden language.

External links

*imdb title|id=0077248|title=Blue Collar


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