MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

betty dalton You work hard, but cant pay the bills. How is that any different from nowadays? Back in the seventies wages got frozen. Since then the hard working people got more and more into trouble with inflating prices while wages didnt rise accordingly. The Unions who were suppose to look out for the working people were powerless or corrupt. Money troubles can lead to crime out of desperation. That's what happened in the story of "Blue Collar" in which Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yapfet Kotto play 3 factory workers who plan a heist, because they cant pay the bills no more. Will they get away with it?Special praise for the acting performance of Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto and Harvey Keitel. It is really a characters movie. Acting is paramount. And everybody excells in it. Truly excells! "Blue Collar" is without a doubt the best and most serious work of Richard Pryor. No jokes here. Stay away, far away if you wanna see a fun movie. "Blue Collar" is as real and as bleak as it gets, directed by none other then the legendary Paul Schrader who also wrote the script of the Robert de Niro classic "Taxi Driver".At an endnote I wanna praise the soundtrack by Jack Nitzsche, Ry Cooder and Captain Beefheart. Anyone familiar with these names will immediately raise their ears. And those ears will get pummeled by terrific pounding blues stompers, like the working men in this story get pummeled too...

dworldeater Blue Collar is a criminally under rated classic from writer/director Paul Schrader. This is in my opinion one of his finest works. This is a very compelling and gritty drama with powerhouse performances from Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto and Richard Pryor. This film is much about the struggles of the working man and a look at American society at the time. The film holds up well and much of the themes of the film are relevant today. Very well written and shot, the story flows well and the dialogue and performances are top notch. While the film is about union corruption, it also is a very human story that shows some of the circumstances that corruption manifests itself. There also is commentary on race, class and other issues that are relevant in modern times as well. The film is pretty political and hits on all kinds of social issues, but is never preachy or pretentious and brings this to life in a very real and personal manner. Blue Collar is a very overlooked film that deserves more fanfare and a solid work of 70's cinema.

ametaphysicalshark "Blue Collar" opens with a masterful title sequence which introduces us, quickly and effectively, to the harsh world our characters reside in and to the nature of the conditions in the factory they work in. The opening sequence is set to Jack Nitzsche's "Hard Workin' Man", introducing blues music to us right off the bat, music that not only makes up basically all of the music in this film but can be seen as a motif or even a character in the film. It's amazing how confident and mature Paul Schrader is as a director at this point. Of course, Schrader had already written the massively acclaimed "Taxi Driver" by 1978, but contrary to what one might expect it's his confident and sure handling of the pace and mood in "Blue Collar" that is truly the highlight of the film, not the screenplay penned by Paul and Leonard Schrader, granted the screenplay is in itself quite terrific. Schrader is already a mature director who understands the rhythm of a film.Going back to the use of music in this film, it isn't so much the score itself by Jack Nitzsche (which is, don't get me wrong, solid blues) that's impressive, it's Schrader's handling of the music and sound in general in this film that makes it work so well. First off, the choice to go with a blues score is inspired in itself, as the nature of the music so perfectly captures what these characters are going through. In addition, the score is most noticeable during scenes where the film appears to be commenting on the futility of the characters' struggle and the misery of what they're going through. Where many films would use music to 'enhance' big, dramatic scenes, Schrader's "Blue Collar" makes the wise decision to use it during low-key scenes. There are several scenes that don't feature any music at all, these being some of the more important scenes. Note the scene where Smokey gets trapped in the paint room, absolutely no music, just the cold sound of the machinery (expertly mixed, might I add), which is far creepier and more effective than any score could be at that point. Similar use of sound occurs a few minutes before the end when Harvey Keitel's character Jerry is being chased.The acting here is uniformly superb with Keitel possibly giving his best performance (or at least one of them), and Richard Pryor offering what must be recognized as one of the finest performances of the 70's by anyone. Really, who knew Pryor had this sort of skill when it comes to dramatic acting? Yapphet Koto, a beloved character actor, does a fine job in rounding out the cast for the main three characters. Again, Schrader must be credited for directing his actors so well. It's well-known, of course, that the three leads hated each other and actually broke out in fistfights between takes on occasion. Perhaps that created a sort of demented chemistry between them.The screenplay by Schrader and Schrader (Paul and Leonard) is a fine, fine piece of writing, sort of the daytime factory-worker version of the crude-yet-poetic "Taxi Driver" screenplay. Oddly enough, it's also the source of the few major flaws in this film, as it can come across as fairly heavy-handed in certain scenes. If there's one thing I'd definitely do differently with this film, it's the final shot, which would have been terrific had this been a comedy.All in all, a great film in its own right and especially impressive as a directorial debut from Schrader. Very memorable.9/10

janus-20 This is a great movie, a really great movie, this type of American cinema did fade into the background towards the end of the 70s. Primarily due to the increasing popularity of the blockbuster movie, but to avoid the cliché, that genre had been around long before "Jaws" and "StarWars".These type of movies have been re-emerging of late ,as the blockbuster is starting to falter, people want a bit of meat ,and not just to be the vegetables. Blue Collar is a slice of life, social commentary, crime caper, some people seem to find the characters habits unappealing, but that is taking this from the point of view ,that the heroes of the piece needed to be altruistic to the extreme ,as the union is the enemy. I feel that is reading this wrong,there are no goodies and baddies here.Thats the point,the film is letting you decide, it places all its moral questions right in front of you, whatever you think, it made you think,didn't it ?Anyone who has ever worked, can recognise something relevant to them in this film, why do we work , to perpetuate a cycle , everyone knows the questions and answers, as bleak as the situation may be, this film forces you to examine societies structure, and your place in it.In the present age of trivial pursuits, thats more important than ever !