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In BLUE COLLAR, Paul Schrader's strong directorial debut, three assembly-line auto workers (Richard Pryor in one of his only serious dramatic roles, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto) are equally angry and disenchanted at factory management and their own union. They are also, as the film reveals in long, detailed vignettes, struggling just to make ends meet. As they ruminate together on their dead-end jobs and the fears of a dead-end life, they eventually plan to burglarize their union's safe. The catch: Instead of finding cash as expected, they find ledgers documenting mob transactions. The relationship of the three friends is tested in the aftermath of this now-complex heist that was supposed to free the men from their torturous existence but instead has created more conflict in their lives. Pryor and Keitel are outstanding in this searing drama that looks at factory conditions and, more to the point, the condition of the male spirit when sacked with a hard, boring job that can barely support a family.
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