Customer Reviews

Blue Collar [VHS]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This 1978 underrated classic is about three autoworkers. There's an honest and gritty realism to this story and the four-letter words and curses have a ring of authenticity to them, especially those of Richard Pryor whose foul language has been compared to raw sewage mixed with social insight. He's cast in the role of Zeke Brown, who owes money to the IRS and struggles to support his wife and three children. Harvey Keitel plays Jerry Bawtowski, who also has trouble meeting his bills and can't even afford braces for his daughter. And Yaphet Kotto, a physically imposing black man who is actually the son of a Cameroonian crown prince, plays the role of Smoky James, an ex-con who throws wild parties with drugs and women which serve as escape for the growing frustration of the men. All three see the union as corrupt and decide to rob the union office. They hope to get a few thousand dollars apiece. Instead they get more than they bargained for and the series of events that follow lead to betrayal, and murder.

This is the directional debut for writer/director Paul Shrader, known for writing Taxi Driver, and he does a masterful job. He puts the viewer right there on the assembly line, with the harsh clanging of heavy machinery and the constant pressure of the foreman to work faster and faster. I could almost feel the heat and smell the machine oil and sweat of the workers. Along with the physical labor, there's constant stress and this goes on day after day after day. The subject is serious and the story real but the wisecracks provide comic relief and the story is fast paced and gripping. An excellent blues musical score enhancing the action underscores all this. And all the performances were so good that I forgot they were acting. Eventually, the dramatic unsettling conclusion leaves a lot to think about.

I loved this film and give it one of my highest ratings. It's not pleasant or comfortable to watch but it sure is real. And I learned more about the lives of assembly line workers than I ever thought I wanted to know. It's especially poignant seeing it now because Kalamazoo has closed many of these plants since 1978 and this story now has historical perspective. But this tight, riveting story that's an in-your-face gem about life on the assembly line says something important about the American Dream. Don't miss it.

This review is for the product - the film is an under-rated gem that deserves a full restoration and proper DVD release, but instead Universal has relegated it to this garbage "Vault Series" line. What you get when ordering any film in this series is a DVD-R, not a commercially made DVD - with a basic case/cover that anyone could make at home. It's despicable and following on the heals of Warner Bros. similar attempts, a rather frightening portent of what's to come. The only recourse we have is to send a message that this is NOT ACCEPTABLE. Don't pay $20 for a 25 cent PC pressed copy! Universal should be ashamed of themselves!

To be perfectly clear, what you get is essentially a home-pressed DVD COPY, not a commercial DVD. There are no menus - you put it in and the film starts, that's it. No extras, no subtitles, and non-anamorphic middling transfers. Lost is the excellent Paul Schrader commentary from the long out of print Anchor Bay disc. Putting excellent films like this, Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, A Bronx Tale, and others - many of which were previously already available on DVD! - is absolutely insulting! They aren't worth the cost of shipping them, but they have the audacity to charge $20 a pop? Absolutely appalling greed that depends on uninformed consumers ordering blindly. Boycott these and they will go away!

"Blue Collar" is one of the great underrated American films of the 1970s. It tells the story of three desperate, powerless men who work in a Detroit auto plant. When they're not being suppressed by their soulless company, they're being duped by their arrogant, corrupt labor union. Their collective desperation leads them to conduct an almost laughably amateurish robbery of the union safe. Instead, what they find is evidence of widespread union corruption. When they decide to blackmail the union, they find that three working men are no match for a ruthless, powerful labor union (and--in a larger sense--the American capitalist system).

Director Paul Schrader (who co-wrote the film with his brother Leonard) presents this tale in a gritty, realistic fashion. Its bleak message is timeless, but the film is very much of the late 1970s, both in the sets (note the ugly orange sofas!) and in its infusion of drama and socio-political commentary. Filmed in Detroit, Kalamazoo, and Los Angeles, you really get the sense of the hopeless desperation of these three men, who are dying to make a better life for themselves and their families, but are trapped in soul-crushing jobs at the factory.

Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto are their usual brilliant selves. The true surprise for most viewers will be Richard Pryor in one of the very few dramatic roles he ever played. He's hilarious, tragic, sympathetic, and--in the end--despicable all rolled into one.

The DVD version of "Blue Collar" contains interesting bios of the three stars and of Schrader, and a commentary from the director and a female journalist (who spends much of the time swooning over Keitel...particularly when he's in his underwear!). Anyway, from the commentary, we learn that the 35-day shoot was an absolutely brutal one, especially since this was Schrader's first film as a director, and the fact that the three leads absolutely *HATED* each other. Physical altercations and set walk-offs were apparently the norm here. The fact that these three guys come off seeming like friends (for a time) illustrates their considerable acting ability and the magic of movies.

The commentary itself is helpful, but Schrader starts running out of steam (it's clear he doesn't really like this movie very much) toward the end.

The movie, however, never lets up. "Blue Collar" is a terrific analysis of the American working man, and the illusory nature of the so-called "American Dream".

This little-seen film (hence the reason I'm the first and so far only person to review it) is one of my favorites of the '70s, which would pretty much make it one of my favorites ever since the '70s was the best decade for film ever. After writing successful screenplays for directors like Martin Scorsese and Brian DePalma, Paul Schrader here makes his directorial debut, and it is still his best film to date. It's a searing, knowing drama about the lives of Detroit auto workers, and in it Richard Pryor gives his first dramatic performance. He's brilliant, and Harvey Keitel--no surprise here--matches him. If you'r a fan of filmmakers like Scorsese, you'll like Paul Schrader and this film in particular. Highly reccommended.

Richard Pryor should have gotten an Award for his Performance here.After I Saw Which Way is Up? I thought what can He Do Next? Well He Blew me away in this Film.also Harvey Keitel after Blowing up in Taxi Driver Comes on Strong here.Yaphet Kotto gives another powerful Performance as well.He is Very Underrated.The Drama in this film will keep you interested all the way.it's a Forgotten Classic that Deserves more props.

Paul Schrader's first film as a director, Blue Collar, features Richard Pryor as one of three auto factory workers whose debts land them behind the eight ball. The other two, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto, similarly cannot make enough at their jobs--or even with second jobs--to pay their bills, back taxes, and other expenses (like pay for a kid's braces).

So they plan to rob their union safe and being a noirish drama, things do not go as planned. The film is a tough naturalistic look at working men who live day to day on their boring routines, their four-letter word language, their occasional escapes into drugs and sex, their TV dinners--complete with gravy over the watery mashed potatoes--their wives and kids, and their never-to-be-realized dreams of chucking everything.

Schrader does not spare the viewer anything. We see just how these guys work inside the factory making Checker cabs--greasy, gritty, montonous jobs that numb the brain and don't pay enough to do much else but cover the mortgage and the fried chicken dinners and the utility bill.

Richard Pryor gives a startlingly vitriolic performance as Zeke and is absolutely riveting here. Keitel (Jerry) and Kotto (Smokey) turn in rock solid performances, as do the supporting cast which includes Cliff de Young, Ed Begley Jr., Lane Smith, and an older Harry Bellaver (from the Naked City TV show; he was a good friend of my parents when he was alive in his later years. My brother painted a portrait of him....)

It's too bad this DVD is now out of print. It's a strong piece of dramatic filmmaking which, though made in 1978 and smacks of that era, is just as powerful today as it was then. If you're a Richard Pryor fan you should definitely see this film; he's really great in it.

Definitely recommended.

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. ****

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.

This film is brilliant and if you can't wait for it to be re-released as a region 1 DVD, I suggest you buy the region 2 version from Amazon's British website. As long as your DVD player is multi-region and your television can accept a PAL signal you can't go wrong. Better than paying over $40 for it!!

This movie is an under-rated work of art. If nothing else, it reveals what a powerful dramatic actor Richard Pryor was. He's incredibly realistic and human here (his comedy also draws on this kind of empathy). Indeed, each of the three leads is excellent in their parts. I've never seen a Hollywood movie that touches race and class quite like this one -- it is a true original. Do yourself a favour and rent "Blue Collar" -- it will surprise you in wonderful ways.