Workers on film for Labor Day week

Bill Knight column for Mon., Tues. or Wed., Sept. 3, 4 or 5, 2018

Filmgoers proud of working for a living, especially this week, may watch movies and think, “Where are REAL working people?” Unfortunately, in cinema and TV they’re about as common as functional families, good cops, everyday minorities, ordinary women, and compassionate lawyers: mostly missing.

That’s despite most Americans identifying as working class – 48 percent of us, according to the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), compared to 39 percent who think they’re middle class. We’re more working-class now than 30 years ago, when 42 percent identified as working class.

Further, this year both the Gallup and the Pew polls showed public support for unions at its highest level in years (61 percent at Gallup; 60 percent at Pew), and 76 percent of Americans younger than 30 approve of unions.

Nevertheless, as “Crime Movies” author Carlos Clarens wrote, “The film industry timidly avoided labor themes for years.”

Patrice O’Neill, of public TV’s “We Do the Work,” added, “Working people’s lives are a gold mine that [Hollywood’s] failed to fall into. Hollywood is missing an audience that seldom sees itself.”

But some gems were made; here are 10:

“Black Fury” (1935). When Warner Brothers released this drama, the studio warned, “ ‘Black Fury’ is not a propaganda picture; it offers no solution to labor problems, but presents human beings in a human story.” Still, it was banned in some states, including Illinois. Paul Muni plays a miner who endures betrayals, from a lover to strikebreakers. Racketeers seek to control the miners’ union, and Muni’s character himself surrounded by controversy. Ward Bond and Barton MacLane co-star.

“Blue Collar” (1978). Peoria native Richard Pryor co-stars with Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto in a tale about the assembly-line culture that can exhaust workers trapped between Big Business and Big Labor. Set in a Detroit-area factory, three friends work and play together, and involve themselves in mischief that turns dangerous when they try to steal money from the union and discover records that seem to show criminal activity. This first directing effort from filmmaker Paul Schrader (screenwriter for “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull”) shows many divisions: capital and labor, black and white, men and women, mostly powerful and powerless.

“Bread and Roses” (2000). Filmmaker Ken Loach directed this fine drama about a group of Latin American immigrant janitors who protest for their right to organize. Adrien Brody plays a union organizer with the Justice for Janitors’ corporate campaign.

“Business as Usual” (1987). Glenda Farrell stars in this British picture about an independent woman who decides she’s had it with mistreatment on the job. After she’s fired because she objected to a co-worker’s harassment, she organizes the work force, which protests, pickets and prevails.

“Matewan” (1987). Filmmaker John Sayles’ vivid account of West Virginia coal miners in the 1920s focuses on an incident called the Alamo of coal-field wars. Chris Cooper stars as a union organizer who has to unite miners and diffuse racial and other tensions separating workers. Finally, trust, savvy and decency overcome suspicion and coal companies’ power. James Earl Jones and David Strathairn co-star.

“Norma Rae” (1979). Sally Field won an Oscar for her portrayal of the title role in director Martin Ritt’s movie about a textile worker, wife and mother who rises to the challenges and risks of organizing her workplace. Beau Bridges and Ron Liebman co-star.

“On the Waterfront” (1954). Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning reports in New York, this Elia Kazan picture won eight Academy Awards. It stars Marlon Brando as an ex-boxer and misfit dockworker frustrated with his brother (Rod Steiger) and the injustice in the death of a reform-minded co-worker. Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint (her film debut) co-star. Leonard Bernstein composed an exceptional score.

“Sacco & Vanzetti” (1970). This Italian biography about the immigrant anarchists whose conviction and execution sparked world-wide protests is compelling and tragic. History doesn’t agree on the involvement of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in a killing. But in the 1920s, their arrest, trial and sentencing was controversial. Still, they died in electric chairs. The dubbed movie was honored at Cannes Film Festival.

“Silkwood” (1983). Likeable whistleblower Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) joins union organizers’ improving working conditions in Mike Nichols’ biopic. The story traces circumstances that led to the unsolved death of the nuclear plant worker driving to deliver documents to a reporter, raising issues like unions’ role in bringing about change. It co-stars Kurt Russell, Cher and Craig T. Nelson.

“10,000 Black Men Named George” (2002). This made-for-cable film stars Andre Braugher as A. Philip Randolph, the organizer who led the Pullman sleeping-car porters union for decades. Directed by Robert Townshend, the splendid picture co-stars Mario Van Peebles, Brock Peters and Charles S. Dutton.