50m; U.S.
Synopsis: Study of the modern assembly line worker. Although he is better educated, more affluent and has more leisure time than his predecessors, the sense of purpose and meaning in life an individual is able to maintain is questioned.
Category Archives: Occupation/Type of Work
Blue Collar (1978)
114m; U.S.
Director: Paul Schraeder
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Richard Pryor
Synopsis: A band of auto workers decide to rob the local union office. They find $600 and a ledger book. The book reveals that the local has been loan sharking, so the workers decide to blackmail the union officers. The local first announces that $10,000 had been stolen and the figure later rose to $20,600 in an effort to cheat the insurance company.
Where to watch: Available for rental on iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms.
If you’re looking for something more tart than inspirational for your Labor Day viewing, the directorial debut of Paul Schrader will do the trick. (Back then he was best known as the writer of “Taxi Driver”; now he’s the provocative éminence grise behind “First Reformed.”) Set and shot on location in Detroit, the movie stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto as autoworkers thoroughly disillusioned with being exploited on the assembly line. Schrader’s analysis of their plight is informed by Marx but also exposes racial inequality. The movie is excessive, profane and relentlessly angry, with some comedic detours that fall flat. But it’s also razor-sharp in its examination of how working people can be turned against their own interests, and each other, by the crassly manipulative forces above them. GLENN KENNY (NYT)
Bloodbrothers (1978)
116m; U.S.
Director: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Paul Sorvino, Tony Lo Bianco, Richard Gere
Synopsis: A young man is torn between following in his brothers’ footsteps or striking out on his own.
Black Legion (1937)
83m; U.S.
Director: Archie Mayo
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Dick Foran
Synopsis: When a hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he is seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.
Black Gold: A Film About Coffee and Trade (2006)
78m; U.K.
Director: Mark & Nick Francis
Synopsis: How unfair trade and labor practices in the coffee industry have kept Africa mired in poverty.
Contact: Brought to our attention in 2010 by: Nicola Seyd for London Socialist Film Co-op nseyd@hotmail.com movie website: http://www.blackgoldmovie.com/ distribution@blackgoldmovie.com
For Man Must Work or The End of Work (2000)
52m; Canada
Director: Jean-Claude Burger
Synopsis: Globalization and the impacts of plant closings.
Contact: First Run/Icarus Films 718-488-8642 f 718-488-8900 v Tom Hyland
The Full Monty (1997)
91m; U.K.
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Tom Wilkinson and Mark Addy
Synopsis: Six unemployed steel workers form a male striptease act. The women cheer them on to go for “the full monty” – total nudity.
Trailer
The Happy Lands (2012)
UK
Director: Robert Rae
108m
It’s the General Strike 1926 – only seven years after the slaughter of the trenches, miners unions lead the country against savage austerity cuts handed to the nation by a Liberal-Conservative government. Inspired by true stories from local families in Fife, the Happy Lands follows the journey of law-abiding citizens who become law-breakers in a heroic battle against the state. It’s never a good time to stand up for your rights – but it’s always the right time.
The Great Pretenders (2007)
30m; U.S.
Director: Jeremy Cohen
Cast: Raniah Al-Sayed, Keith Brown and Al Bundonis
Synopsis (IMDB): A biting satire from the front lines of the American workplace, where layoffs are so routine they’ve created their own industry – outplacement. Elite Transition Services promises laid-off worker Scott Matter help finding a job and getting back on his feet. But as the job search grows increasingly desperate, Scott finds himself caught in a corporate purgatory where the absurdities of office life are brought into vivid relief.
Trailer
The Gronholm Method (El Método) [2005]
115m; Spain, Argentina, Italy
Director: Marcelo Piñeyro
Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Najwa Nimri and Eduard Fernández
Synopsis: Brilliant. A modern version of Rod Serling’s classic TV morality play “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” crossed with “Survivor,” white collar job applicants are put in a room and choose up sides and press their individual advantages.
Trailer
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