Celebrate Labor Day with an in-house film fest

 

Bill Knight column for 8-27, 28 or 29, 2020

 Since most Labor Day activities are being cancelled by the pandemic, a list of safe alternatives like cooking out with family might include retreating inside to watch some good movies about unions. The films below are entertaining, good cinema and often show labor in a good light.

In “Through Jaundiced Eyes,” a book about how media can depict labor, William Puette writes that media’s image of labor “has been both unrepresentative and virulently negative ... [showing labor to be] by nature violent and mired in corruption.”

Still, somehow, more Americans see themselves as working class (47%) than middle class (41%), according to the most recent General Social Survey. That means a huge audience is ignored by timid studios.

In fact, when Warners released the Depression-era “Black Fury,” the company released a note: “ ‘Black Fury’ is not a propaganda picture; it offers no solution to labor problems, but presents human beings in a human story.” Nevertheless, it was banned in some states, including Illinois.

Here are 10 excellent films available on video or streaming:

“Black Fury” (1935). This pet project of star Paul Muni was based on a real incident in coal country. Muni plays a friendly miner who’s betrayed, by a woman and strikebreakers. Racketeers seek to control the miners’ union, and Muni’s character finds himself at the center of controversy. Directed by Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca”), it co-stars Ward Bond and Barton MacLane.

“Blue Collar” (1978). Peoria native Richard Pryor co-stars with Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kototo in a tale about assembly-line culture that can exhaust workers who feel trapped between Big Business and Big Labor. Set in a Detroit-area factory, three co-worker friends find themselves involved in mischief that turns deadly when they try to steal from the union and discover what looks like corruption.

“Bread and Roses” (2000). Ken Loach directed this drama about a group of immigrant janitors who demand their right to organize. The cast is superb, with Adrien Brody as an organizer. Pointedly pro-worker, the film also concedes flaws in everyone.

“Cesar Chavez” (2014). Michael Pena stars in this biopic of the legendary leader of the Farm Workers union, an inspiring figure also active in civil rights and the church. Rosario Dawson and John Malkovich are featured.

“Hoffa” (1992). Starring Jack Nicholson in the title role, this is compelling. However, working people appear just a few times: early in Teamsters history (when workers were weak) and in a mob scene (where strikers confront scabs). Nevertheless, Hoffa, who vanished in 1975, is shown organizing, leading strikes and improving lives, but also making deals with organized crime. Its superb cast includes Armand Assante, John C. Reilly and Danny DeVito, who also directed.

“The Killing Floor” (1984). Produced for PBS, this award-wining drama is a grim glimpse of early 20th century meatpacking and racial strife in Chicago. Damiene Leake stars as a Southern sharecropper who moves north for work. Hired at the stockyards, he finds organizers for a union of African Americans, immigrants and locals, all trying to bargain with powerful packinghouses. Moses Gunn, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Farina and John Mahoney are featured.

“Matewan” (1987). Filmmaker John Sayles’ vivid account of West Virginia coal miners in the 1920s focuses on what’s remembered as the Alamo of coal-field wars. Chris Cooper stars as a union man organizing miners and overcoming racial divisions. The film is narrated by an adult version of an adolescent miner, preacher and union man who recalls, at film’s end, that “it’s just one big union, the whole world over. That’s what I preached. That was my religion.” James Earl Jones and David Strathairn co-star.

“Norma Rae” (1979). Sally Field won an Oscar for her portrayal of the title role in Martin Ritt’s movie about a working wife and mother who rises to the challenges of organizing her workplace. A plain-spoken, 31-year-old Southern textile worker, Norma Rae shows little interest in the arrival of a union organizer (Ron Liebman) then slowly changes, realizing her priorities and risking her job, marriage and family to do what’s right. Beau Bridges and Pat Hingle co-star.

“Silkwood” (1983). Likeable Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) joins union organizers in improving working conditions in this biography directed by Mike Nichols. The story traces most of the circumstances that led to the still-unsolved death of the Kerr-McGee nuclear plant worker – en route to deliver incriminating documents to a reporter. 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 Asa Philip Randolph, the organizer who led the Pullman sleeping-car porters union for decades before becoming an AFL-CIO and civil rights leader. Directed by Robert Townshend, the picture co-stars Mario Van Peebles, Brock Peters and Charles S. Dutton. Often overlooked, the 90-minute film is splendid.