Paul Schrader’s directorial debut isn’t a tale of a fearless crew punching up at their company overlords and the corrupt union that’s supposed to protect them. Instead, it’s a tale of compromise. The kind you make, and the kind that gets made for you. The kind you desperately hope means something in the end, anyway.
In this episode, we discuss the excellent casting; how it’s great that Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto kind of get to be in their own movies here; the forces that pit men who should stand in solidarity against one another; and how it’d be pretty cool to have a life where you work hard, clock out, hit the bar, and go bowling with your pals on the weekend.
**References: **
#CultFilmCollective #35mm
Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch!
Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro: “Hard Workin’ Man” composed by Jack Nitzsche with lyrics by Jack Nitzsche, Ry Cooder, and Paul Schrader and performed by Captain Beefheart from the BLUE COLLAR soundtrack.
Timestamps
0:00 - Episode 137: BLUE COLLAR (1978)
4:59 - The episode actually starts
6:26 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary
7:18 - Politics, smoothness, anger, performances, and Schrader
19:45 - The cast
27:08 - How the movie highlights weariness with comedy
42:10 - The virtue of a nuanceless movie
48:13 - The moment that suddenly pits Zeke, Jerry, and Smokey against each other
55:01 - What the movie does and doesn’t show us, and what that does for the feeling of the movie
1:04:32 - The Junk Drawer
1:10:01 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1978
1:11:36 - Cody’s Noteys: Boo, Call Her! (trivia for movies with impassioned speeches)
