Hollywood Flashback: In 1978, ‘Blue Collar’ Examined Auto Unions

The continued United Auto Staff strike has positioned heightened give attention to working situations at U.S. automobile firms. Among the many narrative movies to have beforehand spotlighted such points — alongside documentaries like Michael Moore’s 1989 standout, Roger & Me — is Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar, which rolled into theaters 45 years in the past and starred Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto. Blue Collar focuses on Zeke, Jerry and Smokey, three Detroit-based car employees who aren’t incomes sufficient cash to make ends meet, in order that they devise a plan to steal from their native union, which inadvertently leads them to uncover corruption throughout the group.

The challenge marked the directorial debut of Schrader, recognized for penning the script for Martin Scorsese’s 1976 basic, Taxi Driver. However the shoot was marred by stress. On the film’s DVD commentary monitor, Schrader recalled how his stars butted heads and competed for focus. “I employed three bulls and requested them to come back right into a china store,” Schrader stated of Keitel (who seems in Taxi Driver), Kotto and Pryor, who was taking up his first dramatic function. “It turned an actual ego battle about who would win the day.” 

Common Photos launched Blue Collar on Feb. 10, 1978, and THR’s overview praised the movie for depicting the scenario “with energy and with poignancy,” including that it “seethes with great vitality.” The function didn’t make a serious affect on the field workplace, gathering $6 million domestically ($30 million as we speak). However its legacy lives on, with Blue Collar holding a 98 p.c critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Gene Siskel referred to as it the fourth-best title of the yr, and Bruce Springsteen — a famous advocate for the working class — cited Blue Collar and Taxi Driver in his 2016 memoir as two of his favourite Nineteen Seventies movies.

In an interview with Cineaste journal on the time of launch, Schrader defined that he tried to not politicize his film’s narrative. “I didn’t got down to make a left-wing movie,” he stated. “Whereas I used to be engaged on the script, I noticed that it had come to a really particular Marxist conclusion.”

This story first appeared within the Sept. 27 subject of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.