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Category Archives: Drama

Newsies (1992)

20 Apr

121m; U.S.

Director: Kenny Ortega

Cast: Christian Bale, Bill Pullman and Robert Duvall

Synopsis (IMDB): July, 1899: When Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise the distribution price one-tenth of a cent per paper, ten cents per hundred, the newsboys, poor enough already, are outraged. Inspired by the strike put on by the trolley workers, Jack “Cowboy” Kelly (Christian Bale) organizes a newsboys’ strike. With David Jacobs (David Moscow) as the brains of the new union, and Jack as the voice, the weak and oppressed found the strength to band together and challenge the powerful.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Children, Class, Collective Bargaining, Drama, Labor History, Musical, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

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The Night Before the Strike (1990)

20 Apr

105m; South Korea

Director: Chang Yoon-Hyun, Eun Lee, Dong-hong Jang, Jae-kyu Lee

Cast: Su-chang Kong, Kyeong-cheol Min, Eun-chae Kim

Synopsis (www.//koreafilm.org): Dongseong Metal employs over 200 impecunious workers at its production plant. One day, a new worker named Ju Wan-ik joins the Forging Team, and the team members welcome him with drinks and good cheer. Han-su, who is also a member of the Forging Team, longs to shake off the insufferable shackles of poverty. His dream, which he is determined to realize, is to work hard, save, and become rich someday. But to the management, the workers are mere machines that are unfortunately prone to breakage. Director Kim meticulously lays down his plans against the impending unionization of his laborers, and Han-su is recruited by his manager to stand on the side of the company.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Manufacturing, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Nightsongs (1983)

20 Apr

116m; U.S.

Director: Marva Nabili

Cast: Victor Wong, Ida F.O. Chung and Mei Bo Kwong

Synopsis: Immigrant worklife in NYC’s Chinatown (directed by an immigrant).

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Women

 

Northern Lights (1978)

20 Apr

95m; U.S.

Director: John Hanson, Rob Nilsson

Cast: Robert Behling, Susan Lynch and Joe Spano

Synopsis: Northern Lights tells the story of North Dakota farmers who rebel against the economic tyranny of the railroads, grain dealers, and bankers by working for the election of Nonpartisan League candidates in 1916. (from http://jetson.unl.edu/cocoon/encyclopedia/doc/egp.fil.051)

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in 2026 Shortlist, Drama, Farm & Food, Finance, Labor History, Organizing, Politics

 

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Nothing But A Man (1964)

20 Apr

95m; U.S.

Director: Michael Roemer

Cast:  Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln and Julius Harris

Synopsis (IMDB): Born in Birmingham, Duff Anderson, the father of a male toddler, who lives with a nanny, re-locates to a small town to work on the railroad. He meets with and is attracted to Josie much to the chagrin of her preacher father. The marriage does take place nevertheless, both re-locate to live in their own house and he gets a job in a mill. He decides not to bring his son to live with them. Challenges arise when the Mill Foreman finds out that Duff is attempting to unionize the workers, forcing Duff to quit, and look for work elsewhere. Unable to reconcile himself to working on a daily wage of $2.50 picking cotton nor even as a waiter, he gets a job at a garage. He is enraged at a customer for belittling him and Josie, and is let go. Unemployed, unable to support his wife and son, he gets abusive and leaves – perhaps never to return.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Blacks, Class, Collective Bargaining, Drama, Farm & Food, Organizing, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

October (Ten Days that Shook the World) [1928]

20 Apr

103m; U.S.S.R.

Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein

Cast: Boris Livanov, Vladimir Popov and Vasili Nikandrov

Synopsis (IMDB): In documentary style, events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of 1917 to the end of the provisional government and the decrees of peace and of land in November of that year. Lenin returns in April. In July, counter-revolutionaries put down a spontaneous revolt, and Lenin’s arrest is ordered. By late October, the Bolsheviks are ready to strike: ten days will shake the world. While the Mensheviks vacillate, an advance guard infiltrates the palace. Anatov-Oveyenko leads the attack and signs the proclamation dissolving the provisional government.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Labor History, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, War

 

October Sky (1999)

20 Apr

108m; U.S.

Director: Joe Johnston

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Chris Owen

Synopsis: This popular film is based on the true story of Homer Hickam, Jr., the introspective son of a West Virginia mine superintendent who nurtures his dream of sending rockets into outer space. Homer’s boyhood dreams become reality, changing his life and the lives of everyone living in Coalwood, McDowell County, in the late 1950’s. This fictionalized autobiography is based on the book Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam, Jr.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Technology, Working Class

 

Of Mice and Men (1992)

20 Apr

115m; U.S.

Director: Gary Sinise

Cast: John Malkovich, Gary Sinise and Ray Walston

Synopsis (IMDB): Based on John Steinbeck’s 1937 classic tale of two travelling companions, George and Lennie, who wander the country during the Depression, dreaming of a better life for themselves. Then, just as heaven is within their grasp, it is inevitably yanked away. The film follows Steinbeck’s novel closely, exploring questions of strength, weakness, usefulness, reality and utopia, bringing Steinbeck’s California vividly to life.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Migrant workers, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

Oliver Twist (2005)

20 Apr

130m; U.S.

Director: Roman Polanski

Contact: Barney Clark, Ben Kingsley and Jeremy Swift

Synopsis (IMDB): An adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Children, Class, Drama, Working Class

 

On a Clear Day (2005)

20 Apr

98m; U.K.

Director: Gaby Dellal

Cast: Peter Mullan, Brenda Blethyn and Billy Boyd

Synopsis (IMDB): After decades of laboring as a Glasgow shipbuilder, Frank Redmond, a no-nonsense 55-year-old working-class man, suddenly finds himself laid off. For the first time in his life, he is without a job or a sense of direction, and he’s too proud to ask for guidance. His best mates – rascally Danny, timid Norman and cynical Eddie – are there for him, but Frank still feels desperately alone. An offhand remark from Danny inspires Frank to challenge himself. Already contemplating the state of his relationships with loving wife Joan and all-but-estranged son Rob, Frank is determined to shore up his own self-confidence. He will attempt the near impossible – swimming the English Channel. As Frank plunges headlong into his new daily life, his astonished friends are swept along with him. Prodded by stalwart fish-and-chips shop owner Chan, the men support Frank, train him – and keep their goal secret from his wife and son.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Children, Class, Drama, Romance, Sports, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

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