Blue Collar (1978) poster
1978 · drama · crime

Blue Collar

Directed by Paul Schrader1h 54m1978
ElsewhereIMDb7.511kRT96%Metacritic77TMDB7.3201
  • heavy
  • brisk
  • intense
  • bleak
Movie DNA

Heavy, kinetic, extreme drama / crime, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, measured.

How every film is hand-scored →

Fed up with mistreatment at the hands of both management and union brass, and coupled with financial hardships on each man's end, three auto assembly line workers hatch a plan to rob a safe at union headquarters.

Our read · Blue Collar (1978) reads as a heavy, kinetic, grounded drama · crime entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of Blue Collar

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a brutal Detroit union thriller where friendship rots from the inside.

ends devastatingit will wreck youbuilds to a gut-punch finalegrips by minute 28attention 5/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violencedrug usesuicide theme

Skip it tonightSkip if betrayal, on-screen suicide, and working-class despair will ruin your night.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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