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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Salesrank: 38832
Released: February 8, 2000 |
| Our Price: $79.00 |
| Used Price: $30.26 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Paul Schrader had established his reputation as a screenwriter (The Yakuza and Taxi Driver, among others) before embarking on his directorial debut. Blue Collar is the story of three working-class guys at the Checker auto plant who run their local union office. Richard Pryor delivers a funny, passionate, seething performance in one of his rare dramatic roles as a rabble-rousing union man. Trapped by family worries and crippling back taxes, he dreams up the robbery after scoping out the joint and enlists his coworker and buddies, family man Harvey Keitel and high-living bachelor Yaphet Kotto, who are in similar financial straits. This is a strictly amateur-hour heist, and their successful getaway is the last bit of good luck in store for the trio. The robbery turns up no cash, only incriminating files, and the inept thieves are soon blackmailing the powerful union, which fights back with force, seduction, and murder. Schrader's first film has little of the polish or style he developed by American Gigolo, but his portrait of lower middle class families in 1970s Detroit, interracial relations, and male camaraderie is sharp and insightful. His attention to detail shows in every frame and adds to the edgy material, which balances the thriller plot with social commentary about corruption, labor relations, and the lure of power. Schrader's later films show more subtlety and cinematic confidence, but time hasn't dimmed the power he unleashes in this angry working class drama.
The DVD features commentary by Paul Schrader, his first such audio track, guided and prodded by critic Maitland McDonagh, who does her best to draw the director out of his long silences and launch him into his fascinating production stories. --Sean Axmaker
Blue Collar Reviews:
flawed classic 
2009-12-13 - Long before the term "blue collar" became equated with Jeff Foxworthy, a stand-up comic who basically pilfers a one-note joke about his confederate flag-waver heritage over and over, blue collar referred to manual labor performed by GED-earners, usually under poor working conditions and low pay. Foxworthy was a white-collar worker. He built mainframes for IBM.
In 1978, "Blue Collar" was the first studio-backed film to feature two black actors as leads -- Yaphet Kotto and Richard Pryor -- both showing genuine flair for dramatic acting under the improbable direction of Paul Schrader, a squirrelly, self-loathing man who was apparently bullied on the set by Pryor, heavily into coke at the time. Schrader himself was just starting to develop a taste for nose candy, which is likely why after this, his directorial debut, he didn't do another thing worth a darn for at least eight years. Schrader, who wrote the screenplay for "Taxi Driver," co-wrote the film with his brother Leonard, another damaged man (thanks to their father), who, according to Peter Biskind's book, "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls," around this time would put the working end of a pistol in his mouth like a pacifier as an insomnia cure. Paul would eventually flirt with the idea of writing Leonard out of a film credit. Nobody can say these guys were far from the art they were creating.
"Blue Collar" explores some of the same themes as "Taxi Driver:" dissatisfied youth without a sense of purpose (or a college education) rebelling against a Nixonian system that was employing an outdated rulebook. The action revolves around three auto assembly line workers portrayed by Kotto, Pryor and Harvey Keitel, or as a minor character in the film observes, "an Oreo cookie." They are overworked, underpaid, hounded by supervisors at work and government agents after work hours, and unable to adequately support their families. They see a way out by robbing the union, which doesn't go as planned and quickly spirals out of control. All three leads contribute fine, nuanced performances that lend them credibility by the time the action becomes wrought with politics, corruption and greed a la "Chinatown," here substituting unions for oil.
It's only at the very end that the film falters, as if Schrader had just given up filming, then later tried to tidy up an insufficient conclusion in the editing room. If he'd had the conviction to keep at it, "Blue Collar" might have been a masterpiece. As it is stands, it's a minor classic.
One of Schrader's best.
2009-06-27 - Blue Collar (Paul Schrader, 1978)
In the early days of Paul Schrader's career, the man could do no wrong. By 1978, he was already well known for his screenplays for Taxi Driver and Rolling Thunder, and he jumped into the director's chair to film his own script for Blue Collar. Turned out to be a pretty good decision, as this is one of Schrader's best early efforts, from both a writing and a directing standpoint. While he's fallen on hard times recently (he's one of the directors who recently tried his hand at an Exorcist prequel, and we all know how those turned out, don't we?), his early films stand as testament to his amazing talent.
Here we have three auto workers, Zeke (standup comedian Richard Pryor), Smokey (Homicide: Life on the Street's Yaphet Kotto), and Jerry (Taxi Driver's Harvey Keitel), all of whom are having financial problems. They're not getting any help from their corrupt union heads, so the three decide to take matters into their own hands and rob the local union office. Murphy's Law, of course, rears its ugly head, and the three find themselves in over their heads.
According to Schrader, the shoot was exceptionally tense, as the leads didn't get along at all (Pryor, especially, was out of control, attacking each of the others at least once, by Schrader's recollection). The mark of fine actors is the ability to take that tension and transfer it to their roles, and it should go without saying that Keitel and Kotto are fantastic actors. The real surprise here is Pryor, who had spent the majority of his film career to that time acting in light comedies, venturing rarely into drama. Here he's the lead even among the three leads, and he nails it. The three of them doing their ensemble thing would be awesome no matter the setting, but Schrader's pointed attack on the culture he's examining (the film's tagline was "what happened to the American dream?") is subtle and smart enough to lend the film an even sharper edge. Blue Collar is a film with teeth, and a very good one at that. Highly recommended. ****
On how far a friendship can go, among co-workers
2009-01-24 - Blue Collar (1978) is a hit in my mind, in the tradition of the
hard-hitting, dripping-with-reality yet artistic and entertaining
movies that Harvey Keitel has come to represent.
The real story, is how far can friendship go, among co-workers, when
by circumstances at work and in their personal lives, those decide
to burglar a union office in order to raise cash, to meet mounting
out of control consumer spending on credit, lack of budgeting, and
financial discipline.
We learn that, at the end of the day, the turn of events happens
very quickly leading to unforeseen outcomes, from pressures coming
from a variety of unexpected sources.
The power of the mass media and American culture, controls minds and
emotions, as workers feel compelled to partake in escort services,
lines of powder, orgies in between their married lives and that on
the car assembly line.
Reality comes calling, in the form of tax evasion caught by the
IRS, and general ethnic and job class tensions, on perceptions of
fairness.
The bigger picture of course, never is told, as factories constitute
their own microcosms, with equal measures of pain and pleasure,
relaxation and hard work, in terms of those closing down,
jeopardized by overseas imported vehicles.
Not being a fan of Richard Pryor, in particular, I have to admit I
was taken aback by his maturity and presence, at least the one
captured on film, which had nothing comical in it, as well as his
senior role to Harvey Keitel, who, although having a mind of his
own, is presented with a "fait accompli" at one point in the
picture.
Another lesson, with Yaphet Kotto playing it, is that in a
workplace, too often the men in charge are egomaniacal and use only
that criteria in deciding who to cut loose and let go in the
company, as opposed to maximizing shareholder wealth.
As such, any and all strong, smart on their feet and wise
(potential) leaders among the grassroots force are immediate targets
from the higher-ups, keen on purging potential rivals early on, to
consolidate their hegemony.
Secrets are never secrets, so long as there is someone out there
with money, who is willing to buy them and someone attracted to the
gain.
Impersonating other people (police detectives as PhD students) is
par for the course, as is exploiting the human fear for the lives of
loved family memebrs, compelling shared information and cooperation.
The passage of time is demonstrated by the design of vehicles, and
methods of production. But of a greater concern, is the total
evisceration of entire manufacturing lines, working man positions,
(welders, sheet metal operators, drivers, engineers, production line
technicians, schedulers, logistics, tool and die machinists, etc.)
in the USA today.
The service jobs today (measured in customers attended to, for
example) formerly could have been in a unionized setting installing
windshields time and again.
Another evolution, over time, are the ghetto and modest origins of
many individuals back then, forced to leave home at an early age,
having evolved now to a more mainstream, more levelled demeanor,
with the exception of today's glorification of the gang lifestyle.
For this picture, the lack of music soundtrack works well, as the
audience only hears the music played in the bar itself, and not as
an overdub. The DVD has a standard wide-screen presentation, albeit
lacking subtitles.
The underworld is slightly mentioned, namely loan sharks at 15 % per
month, shot gun crews to take out the hot heads not falling in line,
not transcending that it's all about the glory of those at the top,
not at the bottom. Divide and conquer is another proven technique.
Fantasic movie
2009-01-09 - I can't believe this isn't on DVD! This is an excellent heist movie set in a Detroit auto plant, with excellent acting from Richard Pryor (in his best dramatic role), Harvy Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto. One of the better films to address the plight of the working man, without ever crossing over into sentimentality or sensationalism. These are real people with flaws and hopes and problems. Writer/director Paul Schrader has crafted a tight, thrilling journey through these mens lives. Even though at heart this is a message movie, it's story driven, and never feels preachy. I only hope it gets the DVD transfer it deserves.
a sobering movie 
2007-09-24 - Well, I love Schrader and his moralistic style, to begin with. But anyway, Blue Collar has held up pretty well through the years, despite the changing face of the American workplace. It's a great movie, an American classic.
