Review of Blue Collar (1978) by Stephen C — 23 Jan 2012

Its testament to Paul Schrader (who make his directing debut here) that he got good performances from his three leads even though they despised each other off camera,that offscreen tension gives the film its hard and rough edge and also makes it one of the best films about the working man Hollywood has ever produced .

Zeke (Pryor) Jerry (Keitel) and Smokey (Kotto) all work on the assembly line of a large automobile comapany.

All three barely scrape by on the money they earn with Zeke running into trouble with the IRS,Jerry having to work two jobs and Smokey in hock to loansharks.

The union does little to help the working man ,infact the union is just a huge corrupt body making kickbacks and screwing the guys at every turn.

When Zeke hatches a plan to rob the union the film goes from semi funny to dark morality tale as events spiral out of control leading to bribery,Death Threats and even murder.

Scharder never flinches while dealing with this subject and its to his enormus credit that he shows how power corrupts on both sides.

Kotto and Keitel are very good ,but for my money its Richard Pryor as the desperate Zeke who takes the acting honours .

Pryor was never better than he was here as a guy who would sell his own grandmother in order to get more money ,its a shame Pryor wasnt given more roles like this as he is truly great in this film.

Schrader would go on to make toughn and intersting films ,but this film is still amongst one of his best.