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Blue Collar (1978)

Rate: 7
Viewed: 2/26

BlueCollar
2/26: "They pit the lifers against the new boys, the young against the old, the black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place."

That's Blue Collar in a nutshell. Paul Schrader and Leonard Schrader wrote a complicated script about three dumb auto workers who are besieged by bills and facts of life. If I complained about Norma Rae for not going deep enough about the union, this one will make up for it. I also love the cinematography which was shot for real on location at the Checker Cab plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Without doubt, it's Richard Pryor who dominates the show as Zeke. The way he talks is unique, even if it's littered with so much profanity. I think Harvey Keitel was very intimidated by him. According to Wikipedia, "Paul Schrader states that during the filming of one take, Harvey Keitel became so irritated by Pryor's lengthy improvisations that he made eye contact with the camera and flung the contents of an ashtray into its lens to make the take containing Pryor's ad libbing unusable. Pryor and his bodyguard responded by pinning Keitel to the floor and pummeling him with their fists."

The funniest scene is when the IRS man came over to Zeke's house and brought up the fake tax deductions on his children named Sugar Ray Brown, Gloria Brown, O.J. Brown, Gayle Sayers Brown, Jim Brown, and Stevie Wonder Brown. I think Zeke would've gotten away with it if the names weren't so blatantly obvious.

Another memorable scene is when Smokey (Yaphet Kotto) got locked in a room while the blue spray was continuously on, slowly poisoning him to death. I was thinking, "Why not open the car and stay there until it's over?" Regardless, the film is too long; it just needs a bit of cutting here and there. The characters sure talk a lot, wearing me down over time. Once in a while, it can feel theatrical.

All in all, Richard Pryor proves he's a serious talent when it comes to drama as evidenced in Lady Sings the Blues, Blue Collar, and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling.