Episode 234 · Film year 1978
Blue Collar (1978)
- Special Guest
- Paul Schrader
- Guest Co-Host
- Maitland McDonagh
Show notes
Just in time for Labor Day, we're looking at the 1978 film all about the working man, Blue Collar. Directed and co-written by Paul Schrader it tells the tale of three men played by Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, and Richard Pryor working the line in our fair city - Detroit - dealing with factory work, family, the union, fraud, race and more.
Labels: Cliff DeYoung Detroit Harvey Keitel Maitland McDonagh Paul Schrader Richard Pryor Yaphet Kotto
Watch
Music credits
- "Hard Workin Man" - Captain Beefheart
- "Cadillac Assembly Line" - Albert King
Links & resources
- Buy Blue Collar on DVD (opens in a new tab)
- Buy Blue Collar by Paul and Leonard Schrader (opens in a new tab)
- Buy Schrader on Schrader by Paul Schrader and Kevin Jackson (opens in a new tab)
- Buy Paul Schrader: Collected Screenplays Volume 1 by Paul Schrader (opens in a new tab)
- Visit the official Paul Schrader website (opens in a new tab)
- View a slideshow of Paul Schrader materials from the Harry Ransom Center (opens in a new tab)
- Visit Maitland McDonagh's 120 Days Books (opens in a new tab)
Related episodes
Episodes that share keywords with this one.
Cat People (1982)
Shared: Director Paul Schrader, Universal Pictures, Ed Begley, Jr.
Paul Schrader, Josh Hadley, Heather Drain
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Shared: Writer Paul Schrader, Universal Pictures, Harvey Keitel
Michael Ballhaus, Darren J. N. Middleton
Jaws (1975)
Shared: New Hollywood, Universal Pictures
Carl Gottlieb, John LeMay, Jamie Benning, Chris Sasser
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Shared: Writer Paul Schrader, New Hollywood, Paul Schrader
Joe Alves, Matthew Robbins, Jim Bloom, Douglas Trumbull and others
Marnie (1964)
Shared: Universal Pictures, Milton Selzer
Tony Lee Moral, Tippi Hedren, Tania Modleski, Susan White
Comments (4)
Jeffrey Goodman Part of what makes that braces scene in Blue Collar all the more bizarre is the shirt that Keitel is wearing. Perhaps you guys are too young to recall the original McDonalds Big Mac promotion.."twoallbeefpatties...etc." but not being sure if product placement was much of an issue at the time BC was made, after all lot's of Strohs Beer consumed as well, I've always fixated on the weirdness of Keitel wearing that shirt, particularly in the most heart wrenching scene in the movie! Crazy stuff...and I saw it in high school with a couple of pals that were Pryor fans, while I was a budding cineaste who was excited to see the next thing from the guy that wrote Taxi Driver. I was astonished by Blue Collar while my friends swore up and down that it was the last time I was going to pick the movie. I ended going solo to most films between that one and when I went off to college. Thanks for another great episode. Bring on Hardcore!!! (Unless you've already done it and I missed it in my quick scan of your list) regards, Jeff Goodman SF, CAAnonymous Totally cool I am seeing that now and such a cast playing smokey from the alien movie after I think 79. I'm going to keep searching I want to get one of those shirts being in my mid 50's ¡!
Inventive Productions LLC Fantastic interview. Awesome!The Foreign Viewer Talk about movies with perfect endings. Fantastic social commentary, the best serious Pryor's performance and one of the best working class movies ever made. Too bad no one saw it. Yaphet Kotto was also the boss (figuratively and literally) on the classic 1990s NBC cop drama Homicide: Life on the Street that preceded the Wire. Harvey Keitel can now and then still be seen in some interesting projects (you ought to see The Congress (2013), a very current Gilliamesque satirical Sci-fi drama about the future of the movie business). Speaking of Pryor, any thoughts on Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling?