Directed by: Paul Schrader
Starring: Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, Cliff De Young, Lane Smith
Blue Collar is a movie of stunning perception about the lives of middle-class Detroit automakers being squeezed from all sides in an effort to earn even a modest living. The film centers on three protagonists, all assembly line workers working and living paycheck to paycheck trying to support their families and enjoy whatever leisure time is available. The trouble is: When you are behind on your payments, how can you enjoy leisure time when you're worrying about your income?
There's Jerry (Keitel), a family man in debt who can't afford braces for his young daughter who sneaks out in the middle of the night to attend all-nighters thrown by Smokey (Kotto), an ex-con who works at the plant and can't afford to go back to prison. Then there's the real wild card in Zeke (Pryor), a volatile worker whose locker is in disrepair and can't find anyone in his union who is willing to have it fixed. His meeting with the business agent is full of lip service, but then Zeke notices the safe in the middle of the office which is ripe for a middle of the night theft. Zeke enlists Smokey and Jerry to help him crack the safe, but instead of money, they find evidence of corruption within their own union exposing how the union and the company has been ripping off the members and enriching themselves.
A lesser movie would've turned Jerry, Smokey, and Zeke into folk heroes who take the moral high ground in exposing these nefarious business practices, but Blue Collar takes a realistic and sometimes amoral approach. The guys take the foolhardy approach of attempting to blackmail the union, something which they respond to with strong-arm tactics and potentially murder. They're used to this sort of thing, while Jerry, Zeke, and even career-criminal Smokey are rank amateurs who bring a knife to a gunfight.
Blue Collar is a story told with tension and urgency. Its moral is to show how ordinary workers are screwed on all sides by the companies which need their labor to produce profits and how the unions charge monthly dues which don't buy much in the way of representation. It is no secret that unions understand that companies need to make money in order to keep workers employed and keep the union dues flowing. This comes as news to guys like Jerry, Zeke, and Smokey who learn the hard way that any dreams of a comfortable life are squashed daily by such a clandestine understanding.
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