Blue Collar

1978
R
1h 54m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

11K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer2:36

1 Video

81 Photos

Dark Comedy Crime Drama

When three automotive factory workers who're struggling financially try to steal from their own labor union, they discover corruption, and reluctantly decide to use this information for blac... Read allWhen three automotive factory workers who're struggling financially try to steal from their own labor union, they discover corruption, and reluctantly decide to use this information for blackmail.When three automotive factory workers who're struggling financially try to steal from their own labor union, they discover corruption, and reluctantly decide to use this information for blackmail.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

11K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations

Trivia
It was a very tense shoot, because Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto, and Harvey Keitel argued constantly. There were fights, verbal abuse, walk-offs, and Mexican stand-offs. According to Paul Schrader, Pryor punched Keitel and hit Kotto with a chair during filming.

Goofs
Whenever the actors use air powered tools, the tools just spin in mid-air.

Quotes
[last lines]
Smokey James: [voiceover echoing earlier line] They pit the lifers against the new boy and the young against the old. The black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place.

Connections
Featured in At the Movies: Special Show: At the Cassette Store, Part 3 (1986)

Soundtracks
Hard Workin Man
Music by Jack Nitzsche
Lyrics by Jack Nitzsche, Ry Cooder and Paul Schrader
Performed by Don Van Vliet (as Captain Beefheart)

User reviews72

Review

Featured review

Tough

Three workers in a car plant take it onto themselves to rob the safe of their Union office. They come away with only $600 but they find themselves with information that they can use to blackmail the union. However the union plans to kill the men and turn them against each other.

From the writer of Taxi Driver comes this tough little social piece about how the working man is screwed by the `system'. The plot follows three men trying to make out (admittedly illegally) and the way the system uses them against each other etc to shut them up. The plot is very clever and the writing is superb.

Pryor is great he could have been his comedy self but his acting is really sublime. Likewise Keitel and Kotto are on top form and the support from Begley et al is really good. The film will engross you and the final shot and line will stay with you for years.

Overall an underrated classic that deserves as many viewers as possible.