syh

Blue Collar

Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, and Richard Pryor as Checker Motors autoworkers in 1977/8. When I saw that snippet of a synopsis the first time I saw this movie (between moves to MI, so 2000, I think), I thought Really? Those three? And it was made in Detroit? Sweet. I only saw two scenes (Yaphet Kotto being painted to death and Richard Pryor being bought off on an overpass shortly thereafter), but they stuck with me.

(I didn't know at the time Checker Motors actually hailed from Kalamazoo. Chalk it up to youthful ignorance colored with an infatuation with all things automotive = Flint & Detroit.)

Seven, eight years later, I'm more informed and more embittered since I am now part of this industry, albeit with a supplier/test facility, not an OEM. I can appreciate this movie for the time capsule moments (car production-counting Goodyear billboard, the long-gone Uniroyal plant along Jefferson, Great American Sedans) and social commentary (if you're a worker, management on both sides of the table will shit on you; all the more relevant today with the Steve Millers & Jrgen Shremmps of the world running around "saving" companies).


{Too many parenthetical notations means SYH needs to get some sleep.--Ed.}