Blue Collar (film)

Blue Collar
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Paul Schrader
Written by	Paul Schrader Leonard Schrader
Based on	an article by Sydney A. Glass
Produced by	Don Guest
Starring	Richard Pryor Harvey Keitel Yaphet Kotto Cliff DeYoung
Cinematography	Bobby Byrne
Edited by	Tom Rolf
Music by	Jack Nitzsche
Production company	T.A.T. Communications Company
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	February 10, 1978 (1978-02-10)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.7 million[1]
Box office	$6.5 million[2]

Blue Collar is a 1978 American crime drama film directed by Paul Schrader, in his directorial debut. Written by Schrader and his brother Leonard, the film stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto.^[3] The film is both a critique of union practices and an examination of life in a working-class Rust Belt enclave.

Schrader, who was a screenwriter renowned for his work on Taxi Driver (1976), recalls the shooting as being very difficult because of the artistic and personal tensions he had with the actors (including the stars themselves). Schrader has also stated that while making the film, he suffered an on-set mental breakdown, which made him seriously reconsider his career.^[4]

The film was shot in Detroit and Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Plot[]

A trio of Wayne County, Michigan auto workers, two black— 32-year-old Ezekiel "Zeke" Brown from Detroit, Michigan (Pryor) and two-time ex-convict 35-year-old John "Smokey" James (Kotto) from Mississippi who spent time in a Michigan State Prison—and one 33-year-old white— Polish-American from Hamtramck, Michigan, Jerry Bartowski (Keitel)—are fed up with mistreatment at the hands of both management and the union brass. Smokey, a bachelor, is in debt to a loan shark over a numbers game, Jerry, a family man, works a second job as a gas station attendant to get by but still struggles to pay bills, including the orthodontics work that his daughter needs. Zeke, another family man, is in trouble with the IRS for tax evasion by filing false claims to in order to improve his family's income.^[5]

Coupled with the financial hardships on each man's end, the trio hatch a plan to rob a safe at the union headquarters. With a few rough bumps, they commit the caper but find only $600 in petty cash. More importantly, they also come away with a ledger which contains evidence of the union's illegal loan operation and ties to organized crime syndicates in Las Vegas, Chicago and New York. They decide to make an attempt to blackmail the union with the information, especially when the union has issued a false statement claiming that $10,000 had been robbed so they can fraudulently collect from the insurance. Meanwhile, Charlie T. Hernandez, a local racketeer & loan shark who is an acquaintance of Smokey was aware of the trio's robbery, pays Smokey a visit, revealing that Smokey received advice from him on how to crack the union's safe in exchange for a percentage of the robbed proceeds. Charlie gets busted by the police for his ties in an unrelated crime, and attempts to get off or receive a softer conviction in exchange for spilling off information about the trio's theft & their blackmailing. This information subsequently gets back to the union and they begin to retaliate strongly by turning the tables on the three friends. Jerry experiences a miss one evening when a pair of hired thugs show up at his house to attack his wife, but both get intercepted and beaten up by Smokey. The next day at work, a suspicious accident at the plant results in Smokey's death that is investigated as a work accident caused by negligent safety protocols, which Zeke and Jerry realize was a murder coordinated by the union bosses due to the incriminating knowledge they possess against the union. Jerry sends his family out of town to stay with relatives to keep them out of harms way.

An FBI agent, John Burrows, who has been investigating the union, attempts to coerce Jerry into becoming a material witness or cooperating witness on the union's corruption, which would make him an adversary of his co-workers and a reputation as a cowardly snitch. At the same time, corrupt union bosses already succeed in coopting Zeke to give back their stolen ledger and work for them with promises of upward mobility being promoted to shop steward and increased remuneration. Zeke, happy with his new duties and higher pay, pragmatically prescinds from seeking justice for Smokey's murder, as it would jeopardize his newfound standing within the ranks of the union. Jerry attempts to convince Zeke to take steps to avenge Smokey's death, but Zeke rebukes him, telling Jerry that nothing will bring Smokey back and that they should just move forward. One evening, two gunmen, hired by the mob, follow and try to shoot Jerry in a drive-by shooting while traveling through a tunnel. This evolves into a chase where Jerry attempts to make a desperate break for Canada via the Detroit–Windsor tunnel. However, he ends up crashing his car before he gets there, but is rescued by the police. Disgusted with Zeke's capitulation and terrified after another attempt on his life, Jerry decides to reach out to John Burrows and cooperates with the FBI and a United States Congress Select or special committee (United States Congress).

In the end, as Jerry enters the plant with federal agents, Zeke confronts him. Once friends, Jerry and Zeke now turn on each other as a heated discussion escalates into the two attempting to physically attack each other, confirming the prescient earlier narrative (as heard in Smokey's words) that union corruption divides workers against one another.

Cast[]

• Richard Pryor as Ezekiel "Zeke" Brown
• Harvey Keitel as Jerry Bartowski
• Yaphet Kotto as John "Smokey" James
• Ed Begley Jr. as Bobby Joe
• Harry Bellaver as Eddie Johnson
• George Memmoli as Jenkins
• Lucy Saroyan as Arlene Bartowski
• Lane Smith as Clarence Hill
• Cliff DeYoung as John Burrows
• Borah Silver as "Dogshit" Miller
• Chip Fields as Caroline Brown
• Harry Northup as Hank
• Leonard Gaines as Mr. Berg, IRS Man
• Milton Selzer as Sumabitch
• Sammy Warren as Barney
• Jimmy Martinez as Charlie T. Hernandez

Production[]

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

The three main actors did not get along and were continually fighting throughout the shoot. The tension became so great that at one point Richard Pryor (supposedly in a drug-fueled rage) pointed a gun at Schrader and told him that there was "no way" he would ever do more than three takes for a scene; an incident that may have triggered Schrader's nervous breakdown.^[4]

Schrader states that during the filming of one take, Harvey Keitel became so irritated by Pryor's lengthy improvisations that he flung the contents of an ashtray into the camera lens, ruining the take. Pryor and his bodyguard responded by pinning Keitel to the floor and pummeling him with their fists.^[6]

Jack Nitzsche's blues-flavored score includes "Hard Workin' Man", a collaboration with Captain Beefheart.^[7]

Reception[]

Blue Collar was universally praised by critics. The film holds a 98% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 40 reviews.^[8] Both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel lauded the film; Ebert awarded the film four stars^[9] and Siskel placed the film fourth on his list of the ten best of 1978.^[10]

Filmmaker Spike Lee included the film on his essential film list "Films All Aspiring Filmmakers Must See".^[11] The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list.^[12]

In his autobiography Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen names Blue Collar and Taxi Driver as two of his favorite films of the 1970s.^[13]

See also[]

• Heist film

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Blue Collar (film)

• Blue Collar at IMDb
• Blue Collar at the TCM Movie Database
• Blue Collar at Letterboxd
• Blue Collar at Rotten Tomatoes