Working Class | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

The Secret of My Success (1987)

111m; U.S.

Director: Herbert Ross

Cast: Michael J. Fox, Helen Slater and Richard Jordan

Synopsis (IMDB): Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York. On his first work day in New York, he is fired in a hostile take-over and learns that jobs – and girls – are hard to get. When Brantley visits his distant uncle, Howard Prescott, who runs a multi-million-dollar company, he is given a job in the company’s mail room. Then Brantley meets Christy Wills, who happens to be one of the top executives. Brantley sees how poorly the company is being run and decides to create a position under the name Carlton Whitfield, to influence and improve the company’s operations. Soon things get unexpectedly out of hand, not in the least because of his aunt, his girl and leading a double life.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Comedy, White Collar, Working Class

The Shop Steward (1953)

13 Jun

21m; Canada

Director: Morten Parker

Synopsis: A dramatized presentation of the role of the shop steward in the effective day-to-day functioning of free trade unionism, the film begins with the election of machinist Johnny Walachuk as shop steward for the men in his section of a large industrial plant. Continuing, it shows the part the shop steward plays in carrying out the grievance procedures set up by company and union. How Johnny fulfills his responsibility to protect the men who elected him from infractions of the agreement is told in his own words and typifies the function of union shop stewards generally in Canada. Number one of the series.

Contact: http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=15383

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Drama, Working Class

The Stockyards: End of an Era

13 Jun

Synopsis: Film discusses the closing of the Chicago Stockyards, black struggles with union, history of work in yards, ethnic backgrounds.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Documentary, Manufacturing, Safety & Health, Working Class

Tags: Food Service Industry

The Trap (2007)

13 Jun

115m; Serbia/Germany/Hungary

Director: Srdan Golubovic

Synopsis: Modern film noir reflecting the true face of Serbian “society in transition,” THE TRAP is an archetypal story of a parent’s worst nightmare—a dying child—and how far a man is willing to go to save him. In post-Milosevic’s Serbia there is no more war, however, normal life remains almost unreachable, and when Mladen is offered an only chance to save his son, he must confront moral and existential demons and decide how to measure the worth of a human life.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Children, Drama, Working Class

The Train (1964)

13 Jun

133m; U.S.

Director: John Frankenheimer

Cast: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau

Synopsis: It is the fall of 1944 and the Allies are advancing to liberate Paris. German Colonel Von Waldheim decides to seize hundreds of France’s most famous artworks and ship them back to Germany via train. The French resistance wants to stop this and a team of working-class train operators and workmen are given the mission.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Crime-Action, Transportation, War, Working Class

Thelma & Louise (1991)

13 Jun

130m; U.S.

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis and Harvey Keitel

Synopsis (IMDB): Louise is working in a fast food restaurant as a waitress and has some problems with her friend Jimmy, who, as a musician, is always on the road. Thelma is married to Darryl who likes his wife to stay quiet in the kitchen so that he can watch football on TV. One day they decide to break out of their normal life and jump in the car and hit the road. Their journey, however, turns into a flight when Louise kills a man who threatens to rape Thelma. They decide to go to Mexico, but soon they are hunted by American police.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, White Collar, Working Class

They Drive by Night (1940)

13 Jun

93m; U.S.

Director: Raoul Walsh

Cast: George Raft, Humphrey Bogart and Ann Sheridan

Synopsis (IMDB): Brothers Paul and Joe Fabrini run a trucking business in California mainly shipping fruit from farms to the markets in Los Angeles. They struggle to make ends meet in the face of corrupt businessmen and intense competition. They are forced into driving long hours and one night pick-up waitress Cassie Hartley who’s just quit her job at a truck stop. The three of them witness the death of a mutual acquaintance when he falls asleep at the wheel. This has a profound effect on Paul and Joe and they become determined to find a way to make the business pay so they can quit.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Crime-Action, Themes, Working Class

Tags: Trucking

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

13 Jun

129m; U.S.

Director: Sydney Pollack

Cast: Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin and Susannah York

Synopsis: Gloria is a young woman of the Depression. She has aged beyond her years and feels her life is hopeless, having been cheated and betrayed many times in her past. While recovering from a suicide attempt, she gets the idea from a movie magazine to head for Hollywood to make it as an actress. Robert is a desperate Hollywood citizen trying to become a director, never doubting that he’ll make it. Robert and Gloria meet and decide to enter a dance marathon, one of the crazes of the thirties. The grueling dancing takes its toll on Gloria’s already weakened spirit, and she tells Robert that she’d be better off dead, that her life is hopeless – all the while acting cruelly and bitterly, alienating those around her, trying to convince him to shoot her and put her out of her misery. After all, they shoot horses, don’t they?

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Unemployment-Wages, Women, Working Class

To Sleep with Anger (1990)

13 Jun

101m; U.S.

Director: Charles Burnett

Cast: Danny Glover, Paul Butler and DeVaughn Nixon

Synopsis (Wikipedia): Harry Mention (Danny Glover), an enigmatic drifter from the South, comes to visit an old acquaintance named Gideon (Paul Butler), who now lives in South-Central Los Angeles. Harry’s charming, down-home manner hides a malicious penchant for stirring up trouble, and he exerts a strange and powerful effect on Gideon and his thoroughly assimilated black, middle-class family, including wife Suzie (Mary Alice) and sons Junior (Carl Lumbly) and Babe Brother (Richard Brooks).

After Gideon suffers a stroke, Harry’s influence over the family grows, in particular over Babe Brother, the youngest son. Harry introduces him to a lifestyle of drinking and gambling, and encourages him to leave his wife to join Harry and his friends on the road. However, before Babe Brother gets a chance to leave, Junior confronts him. They fight, and their mother gets stabbed in the hand trying to separate them. After taking her to the hospital, Babe Brother decides to stay with his family instead of joining Harry. When Harry comes back to collect some things, he slips on some marbles belonging to Babe Brother’s son, and dies. Soon after, Gideon gets out of his bed for the first time in months, causing the viewer to question the relationship between Harry’s presence in the house and Gideon’s sickness.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, White Collar, Working Class