Synopsis
Fed up with mistreatment at the hands of both management and union brass, and coupled with financial hardships on each man's end, three auto assembly line workers hatch a plan to rob a safe at union headquarters.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Richard PryorZeke Brown
- Harvey KeitelJerry Bartowski
- Yaphet KottoSmokey James
- Ed Begley Jr.Bobby Joe
- Harry BellaverEddie Johnson Union President AAW Local 291
- George MemmoliJenkins
- Lucy SaroyanArlene Bartowski
- Lane SmithClarence Hill, Union Steward
- Cliff DeYoungJohn Burrows
- Borah SilverDogshit Miller, Foreman
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
It is an angry, radical movie about the vise that traps workers between big industry and big labor. It's also an enormously entertaining movie; it earns its comparison with On the Waterfront. And it's an extraordinary directing debut for Paul Schrader, whose credits include Taxi Driver and Rolling Thunder. - 100
Variety
Paul Schrader's directorial debut is an artistic triumph. Schrader has transformed a carefully researched original screenplay penned by him and his brother Leonard into a powerful, gritty, seamless profile of three automobile assembly line workers banging their heads against the monotony and corruption that is the factory system. - 100
IndieWire
Pryor’s best film and his best performance and that’s not taking anything anyway from his co-stars Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto. - 83
The A.V. Club
Pryor has a lot of funny moments in Blue Collar, especially in the first half or so, when the movie tends toward angry comedy. - 80
Time Out
Very probably the most clear-sighted movie ever made about the ways that shopfloor workers get f.cked over by the system. - 80
Empire
Suffused with the pessimism of Taxi Driver, Blue Collar is one of the most brutally honest films to have come out of 70s Hollywood. - 75
Chicago Reader
The movie is affecting as a social portrait as well as a psychological drama. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
The three leads--particularly Pryor, in an essentially non-comedic role--are remarkable.
