“The movie started with the arrival of the next shift on the work (Ebert). The camera takes into the automobile factory, close enough that a viewer needs to shield his eyes from the sparks and could even imagine smelling the sweat (Ebert). “Blue Collar” is about the life along the assembled line of Detroit regarding the engagement of men down theses chains for the installment of lifetime plan (Ebert). The movie seems angry and radical about the traps of the vice for the workers among the labors and big industries (Ebert). The film is incredibly entertaining and gets in comparison with the movie “On the Waterfront.” This is one of the extraordinary debuts of direction from the “Paul Schrader” (Ebert).”
“The story is about three buddies that are labors (Ebert). More or less they are in the same boat (Ebert). After getting fed up from their usual work routine, they decided to rob inside their union where they found not more than the hundred bucks and the details of some illegal loans and funds of the union (Ebert). Overall the movie seems comfortable and relaxed with the having humor of the guys in the scene along with the tones and textures of the society they are living in (Ebert). One of the main thing about which the movie charges passionately is the friendship of these buddies. The management and the unions own the movie have collaborated in showing the “rich against the poor,” “old against the young” and the “black against the white” just to conquer (Ebert).
“On the demand of the Pryor, the capers invaded innocently than at the meeting of union the company decided to repair his locker because his hand was cut down while opening it (Ebert). But the union representatives seem indifferent to Pryor and just about everyone else, and so Pryor marches into the office of the shaggy, Whiteman union leader who was a radical himself, once, back in the 1930s (Ebert). And while the great statesman is feeding him several varieties of lies, Pryor sees the office safe and gets his idea (Ebert).”
“The burglary itself finds the right line between humor and suspense, and then the movie’s anger begins to burn (Ebert). Because when the three men discover that the ledger may be more important than any money in the safe, they’re torn between using it for blackmail and using it to expose the corruption of their union (Ebert). Schrader gradually reveals his total vision in the film’s second hour (Ebert). A friendship that was sound and healthy suddenly goes sour (Ebert). The system drives a wedge between them, as Pryor is offered a union job, Keitel becomes an FBI informer, and Kotto is killed in a scene of great and gruesome power (Ebert).”
“It took a measure of courage to make “Blue Collar,” and especially to follow its events through to their inevitable conclusion (Ebert). The movie could have copped out in its last thirty minutes, and given us a nice, safe Hollywood ending. Instead, it makes criticisms of mass production that social critics like Harvey Swados and Paul Goodman might have agreed with (Ebert). This isn’t a liberal movie but a radical one, and one I suspect a lot of assembly-line workers might see with a shock of recognition (Ebert).”
“Red Harvest” book review
“While examining the first published novel of the Hammett namely “Red Harvest” it could be argued that the Hammett not only has the membership in the “communist party” but it also holds the “proletarian fiction” (Freedman and Kendrick, 209).According to different critics, the novel can be considered as the “anti-fascist work” however it is more or complicated in reality (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). The novel could also be read politically, but the existing politics is ambiguous that reflects the contradiction of Hammett’s evolution that was not completed at the time when a novel was written going from the private detective Pinkerton towards the communist (Freedman and Kendrick, 209).”
“Ultimately, although Hammett’s novels can be read politically, their politics are ambiguous, reflecting Hammett’s contradictory evolution (which was not completed at the time he wrote Red Harvest) from Pinkerton private detective to Communist (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). While it is possible to read political significance into Hammett’s work, there is not one obvious reading, and, in fact, it is possible to read it in several different ways (Freedman and Kendrick, 209).”
“The novel is one of the greatest examples of the “boiled detective Fiction” that is the category of sharp and older variety of ratiocinative (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). The reading of the novel provides the detective genre of fiction with a description structure that is based on the numerous distinct forms of the labor (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). Each of the described forms is autonomous and yet more complex and interrelated with the previous one (Freedman and Kendrick, 209).”
“After the American Civil War, when the United States rapidly industrialized, the class struggle between workers and capitalists was common (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). Often, employers hired private armies to battle strikers, leaving many workers dead (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). The Pinkerton Detective Agency was one leading supplier of these mercenaries (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). Although they were involved in other detective activities, the Pinkertons are best known for their bloody anti-union repression (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). There is probably no famous labor battle in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in which the Pinkertons were not involved, employing violence and deceit against the efforts of organized labor to improve workers’ conditions (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). For example, during the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, some three hundred armed Pinkerton strike breakers fought (and lost) a pitched battle with strikers for more than twelve hours (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). Three Pinkertons and seven strikers died (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). The overall action of the novel is concerned with the successful carried out efforts and the useful friendships at the level of labor community leading to the pertinent structure and the information required for the communism (Freedman and Kendrick, 209).”
Analytical essay
“The recent studies of European and Americans about the “mass culture” have challenged long term establishment of movies. Radio, televisions and amusement parks as the tools for the manipulation of the inactive audience. For the argument of the fact that ordinary people are the productive receivers of these cultural products, the authors have further added that they are the good producer of this culture as well. During the start of this century different radical and labor organizations have made the feature films and documentaries were released at the same time different literature was also published in the same issue that represented the different political and economic struggle for the labor community. In the same time, different leaders of the industries along with the censor boards committee and the federal agencies tried to block the films based on the work forces. This step demonstrated that the media and mass culture is for sure a source of filling the gaps between the classes and the groups. So this struggle of the early 20th century in the industry of motion picture shaped this ideology and the consequent development related to it.”
Discussion
“While discussing the unique contribution of “the blue collar” represents the labor history, their struggles, and difficulties (Ebert). Unlike the other films, it is the “classic Hollywood” film that has celebrated the victory of the labor union (Ebert). The basic theme of the film is based on the topic of the labors (Ebert). Over all, there is a negative image of the labor community that is intended to have shortcuts and get involved in the robberies and the lies (Ebert). But examining the movie critically it is found that there exists innocence behind their illegal acts even (Ebert). They went to the downside just because they wanted to lessen their difficulties and to fulfill their needs that are not covering up in their legal earning (Ebert). There exist a lot of discrimination in the workplaces among rich and poor and even blacks and whites (Ebert). So these concepts support the labor activism and unionism in an optimistic way. The film has depicted the role of working class in the media and mass culture (Ebert). Therefore by linking this union with the consumption, the film has provided the dominant future of capitalism in the working class and whole American society (Ebert). Similarly, the book “Red Harvest” has shown the concept about the image of the labor class (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). In the starting, there was a negative depiction of the labors ad later on it showed the suffering and struggles of the workers to get their civil rights (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). They got united for the violence against them and to get employment with equal rights and improved conditions (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). So in overall, it is for the working class. Film and book, both of them are almost having the similar approaches towards the efforts, struggles and civil right war of the labor group (Freedman and Kendrick, 209). They are showing the historical background and violence upon the labor including their resulting reaction (Freedman and Kendrick, 209).”
Conclusion
“By reviewing the scholar examination of the film “blue collar” and the book “Red Harvest” a deep relationship is found between the workers and the literature during the nineteen century that further illustrates the two approaches. The one is the fact about the writing of cinema scholars about the images of the workers, and secondly, the literary scholars have written about the activity related to the labor union. Therefore both of the forces should be combined to shape the proper ideology and to focus the class so that the questions about the different political and social perspectives for different eras could be answered. Hence there is a partial solution and the direction for the required research and the examination of an audience for the mass media culture and the literature. Much of it is dependent on the relationship of the censor board, media and the influence of the government with the economic system of the film industry.”
Work cited
Ebert, Roger. “Blue Collar Movie Review & Film Summary (1978) | Roger Ebert”.
Rogerebert.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 16 May 2017.
Freedman, Carl, and Christopher Kendrick. “Forms Of Labor In Dashiell Hammett’s Red
Harvest”. PMLA 106.2 (1991): 209. Web.
