There’s a lot of great and influential filmmakers who helped shape American cinema in the 1970s. The New Hollywood Age started in the late 60s with films like Bonnie & Clyde, Easy Rider and I am also going to throw in The Wild Bunch as well. Cause it did change the way we look at Westerns and Peckinpah shot a Western in a completely different way from how John Ford made Westerns. It started this revisionist look at Westerns. Now I could go on for a long time about why I like The Wild Bunch. It is not only one of the best films of all time, but also it is one of my favourite films of all time. Unfortunately, I have another film to talk about.
One of those other great and influential filmmakers who had a hand in shaping the filmmaking landscape of that decade was writer Paul Schrader. Paul Schrader is a filmmaker I am mostly familiar with as a screenwriter. Not so much as a writer & director. To round off some of the films Paul Schrader has written: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Bringing Out The Dead, Obsession, The Yakuza, City Hall and The Mosquito Coast. The films he has written and directed have ranged from First Reformed, The Card Counter, American Gigolo, Hardcore, The Comfort of Strangers, Light Sleeper and this film I am going to be looking at: Blue Collar. This was his first film he made as a writer and director. He co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Leonard Schrader.
Blue Collar was released in 1978 and was fairly well received. Both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel praised the hell out of it. Roger gave it four stars and Gene placed it 4th on his top ten favourite films of 1978. Spike Lee considers it one of those essential films that all aspiring filmmakers must see. Bruce Springsteen named Blue Collar and Taxi Driver as two of his favourite films of the 1970s in his autobiography. I guess he maybe a fan of Schrader or that is just a big coincidence. On Rotten Tomatoes where it has a 98% Fresh rating, the consensus says: “Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar offers a searing, darkly funny indictment of labour exploitation and rampant consumerism that’s fuelled by the outstanding work of an excellent cast.”
I had heard of this movie before, but for a while it wasn’t properly available. Until I saw that there is an Indicator Series Blu Ray from Powerhouse Films that you can get. I am very happy I own a Blu-Ray copy of Blue Collar. It’s a strong film with a powerful message behind it. It is a film that has not left my mind since I last watching it and it is a film that has a lot to say. Thematically it would fit right at home in today’s climate, as it deals with similar subject matter that is going on in the world right now. Not just in America. The line from the film said by Smokey James played by the late, great Yaphet Kotto perfectly sums up the film. It’s played in the last scene of the film where it ends on a freeze frame of a big fight about to happen. “They pit the lifers against the new boys and the young against the old. The black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place.” The full line that Smokey says to Harvey Keitel’s character Jerry is: “Because the finance man’s gonna be at your house on Saturday, right? That’s exactly what the company wants – to keep you on their line. They’ll do anything to keep you on their line. They pit the lifers against the new boys, the old against the young, the black against the white – EVERYBODY to keep us in our place.” For a country like America where it feels so inviting with this land of the free talk and all that American Dream malarky, Blue Collar goes out of its way to make a statement and say that it’s all lies. If you’re rich (and being white helps) you can afford to buy your own personal American Dream. If your poor and at the bottom of the food chain, you must work hard for it. And as we are seeing right now, people are struggling. Blue Collar is a contemporary film. It maybe is a 1970s film, but it has a lot that makes it feel current in today’s climate.
The film’s main leads are Yaphet Kotto as Smokey, Harvey Keitel as Jerry and the legendary stand-up comedian Richard Pryor as Zeke. Richard Pryor was one of the granddaddies of American comedy and it was great seeing him in this showing that he can play a dramatic role. Of course, those stand-up comedian characteristics of Pryor are a part of Zeke’s DNA, this is a real substantial role for him. Critic Vincent Canby said: “Richard Pryor has a role that makes use of the wit and fury that distinguish his straight comedy routines.” Despite the fact these three main actors were at each other’s throats throughout production and often got into violent confrontations, their chemistry onscreen is strong. Paul Schrader may have gotten a nervous breakdown trying to rein these actors in, I can imagine Pryor was the toughest given how wild and outlandish he was. This is possibly due to his heavy substance abuse. Smokey, Jerry and Zeke are auto workers, they make the cars on the factory floor. When we are introduced to them in the film, they are all fed up tired with their management and union. Zeke has other problems outside the factory as he gets into trouble with the IRS. He even admits, he is terrible with money. Smokey is a convicted felon and owes money to a loan shark. Jerry even works a second job just so he can get by and support his family. It is still not enough. After a night of consorting with beautiful women and doing a lot of cocaine (I am maybe wrong, but some of it might have been real), they decide to rob their union headquarters. The movie is a social drama, but it is also a caper heist film that makes room for some delightful comedy. They can only away get with 600 hundred dollars from the safe they steal and also a ledger. The ledger details a lot of the Union’s illegal doings. The three of them try to figure out how they can blackmail the people above them. But like all heist films, things after the heist don’t always go well.
Blue Collar starts off with moments of light-heartedness and genuine bits of comedy. For example, when the three leads are caught by a security guard during their heist and all three of them are wearing the worst disguises ever. But as the film goes on, the mood and tone of the film changes into something that is reminiscent of paranoid thrillers of the 1970s. It’s a genuine shift and it doesn’t feel out of place. Paul Schrader handles that shift flawlessly. Lives are threatened, people begin to see things differently, they are corrupted, the management and the union’s true colours are shown and friends become enemies. This a very angry film. It’s an angry film making a loud statement. Blue Collar is On The Waterfront meets Taxi Driver for the post-Watergate generation. Blue Collar is a harsh and critical examination of unions and a bleak look at working class life in rust belt America. You can feel and smell the locations, particularly in the factory. All the grime and the dirt and the stickiness of the paint and the oil. It is a film about how the people on top succeed and not seeing any accountability for their actions. And it is also about how they make the people on the bottom fight one another. If they fight themselves, they won’t fight or go after the men on top. The film becomes a lot darker and less light with scenes of levity as it moves along. Paul Schrader had a strong start as a writer & director. It’s a film that hinges on its performances and they are strong. Yaphet Kotto and Harvey Keitel give great performances and it’s some of their best work. But like I said before, Richard Pryor very much upstages them with his scene stealing performance. Jack Nitzsche’s score sets the tone of the film and I like the mechanical sounds incorporated into the music. The song that he worked on with Captain Beefheart (which is not on any streaming service like Spotify, but you can find the song on YouTube) hangs easy on the ears and helps sets up what kind of film you’re about to watch. You’ll be listening to it for weeks. It should be said that this film feels very realistic. It’s from the 1970s but given what the film is about it still holds up. A 1970s film that still feels very contemporary in today’s climate. You ought to see it.
- Anders
4/5
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