Best Films about Labor?

[Zomby Woof]

In appreciation of Opposite Reaction's thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1723421


I'll start with Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times".

[blogslut]

1. Grapes of Wrath

:)

[zanne]

30. Oh, yeah!

Of course, it's not as good as the book...

[Ilsa]

46. Grapes of Wrath was the first thing I thought of as well.

I wish it was shown on tv more frequently. And the acting was phenomenal, too.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Mine?

Norma Rae and North Country

And for a little fun - Gung Ho with Michael Keaton.

[whistle]

3. "Salt of the Earth"

<snip>
Salt of the Earth (1954)

Director:Herbert J. Biberman

Writers:Michael Biberman
Michael Wilson

Release Date:14 March 1954 (USA) more
Genre:Drama more
Tagline:Banned! The film the US government didn't want you to see! more
Plot Summary:Based on an actual strike against the Empire Zinc Mine in New Mexico, the film deals with the prejudice against the Mexican-American workers... more

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Cast overview, first billed only)
Rosaura Revueltas ... Esperanza Quintero
Will Geer ... Sheriff
David Wolfe ... Barton
Mervin Williams ... Hartwell
David Sarvis ... Alexander
Juan Chacón ... Ramon Quintero
Henrietta Williams ... Teresa Vidal
Ernesto Velázquez ... Charley Vidal
Ángela Sánchez ... Consuelo Ruiz
Joe T. Morales ... Sal Ruiz
Clorinda Alderette ... Luz Morales
Charles Coleman ... Antonio Morales
Virginia Jencks ... Ruth Barnes
Clinton Jencks ... Frank Barnes
Víctor Torres ... Sebasatian Prieto
more

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Trivia:Because blacklisted people were among those who made the movie, the production was fraught with outside interference. The entire cast and crew were met by a citizens' committee in Central, New Mexico, where they had planned to film, and were ordered to leave town. The following day they moved the production to Silver City, NM, and were warned to "get out of town... or go out in black boxes." more
Quotes:Esperanza Quintero: How shall I begin my story that has no beginning? My name is Esperanza, Esperanza Quintero. I am a miner's wife. This is our home. The house is not ours. But the flowers... the flowers are ours. This is my village. When I was a child, it was called San Marcos... more
Movie Connections:Referenced in A Crime to Fit the Punishment (1982) more

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: James Brian Hardman (heatmise) from Charlotte, NC USA

This film has a rare and beautiful honest quality seldom seen to this magnitude in pictures. Made during the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s it was produced completely by a blacklisted crew and professional cast. The film itself was banned in the U.S.A. by congress until the late 1960s. The picture is based on a true story of Mexican-American mine workers on strike in New Mexico. It deals with the wives of the miners having to to step up and work the picket lines in place of their husbands who were legally banned from picketing. Many of the cast members were actual participants in the original strike and the leading lady was deported before the film was even finished. The story of the struggle to make this film would actually make a good film. Ironically the film is very patriotic and shows what truly makes America great; it's people. A strong man and woman's picture with a genuinely beautiful fighting human spirit. It's one of a kind.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047443/

[BrklynLiberal]

4. wow...

[rndmprsn]

5. Matewan by John Sayles

IMHO...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7DA143DF93BA1575BC0A961948260



Matewan'' borrows its title from the name of the small mining community in the West Virginia hills where, in the opening sequence, the Stone Mountain Coal Company is attempting to smuggle in a couple of boxcars full of black laborers to break the threatened strike. Like the Italian immigrants who have already been brought to Matewan, the black miners haven't known of the strike possibility until their arrival.

Also on the train is Joe Kenehan, a lone union organizer. As written by Mr. Sayles, and as played with a sense of patient mission by Chris Cooper, Joe Kenehan is a figure of mythic proportions, part Joe Hill, part Jesus Christ. His task: to give direction to the miners' negotiations and to prevent the kind of sabotage and violence that would give the company an excuse to bring in their goons. That he must fail is the film's distantly heard, mournful theme.

Though Mr. Sayles takes a long view of the events - for all of the passions expressed, the movie is almost chilly - there's never any doubt where his sympathies lie. The characters are either good or evil. They're the idealized figures portrayed in the Government-sponsored murals that, during the Depression, were painted in post offices and other public buildings from one end of the country to the other.

There's not a weak performance in the film, but I especially admired the work of Mr. Cooper, Mr. Tighe, Miss McDonnell, Miss Mette, Mr. Gunton, Mr. Strathairn and Mr. Mostel. They may be playing Social-Realist icons, but each manages to make something personal and idiosyncratic out of the material, without destroying the ballad-like style.

[MikeNearMcChord]

9. 2nd that! My favorite scene in that movie

Is the boy preacher who refutes the hard shell Baptist preacher who rails against union.

[rndmprsn]

25. i like that scene as well, the boy preacher is will oldham...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Oldham

indie rock hero...his music is inspiring.

[MikeNearMcChord]

37. Thanks for the info! The hard shell anti-union preacher is John Salyes himself.

[upi402]

15. agreeed!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[NYCGirl]

6. "Our Daily Bread" (1934)

Unable to secure Hollywood-studio backing for his Depression-era agrarian drama Our Daily Bread, director King Vidor financed the picture himself, with the eleventh-hour assistance of Charles Chaplin. Intended as a sequel to Vidor's silent classic The Crowd (1928) the film casts Tom Keene and Karen Morley as John and Mary, the roles originated in the earlier film by James Murray and Eleanor Boardman. Unable to make ends meet in the Big City, John and Mary assume control of an abandoned farm, even though they know nothing about tilling the soil. Generous to a fault, the couple opens their property to other disenfranchised Depression victims, and before long they've formed a utopian communal cooperative, with everyone pitching together for the common good. Beyond such traditional obstacles as inadequate funding, failed crops and drought, John is deflected from his purpose by sluttish blonde vamp Sally (Barbara Pepper), but he pulls himself together in time to supervise construction of a huge irrigation ditch -- a project which consumes the film's final two reels, and which turns out to be one of the finest and most thrilling sequences that Vidor (or anyone) ever put on film. The acting by Tom Keene and Barbara Pepper is atrocious, but John Qualen saves the show as a dedicated Swedish farmer, especially when he loudly rejects the notion that communal farming is a "Red" idea (this didn't stop the anti-New Deal press from labelling the film as "Pinko" back in 1934 -- and never mind that the communist press considered the film "capitalist propaganda"!) The optimistic finale, distinguished by its Eisentein-like "rhythmic" editing, fortunately lingers in the memory far longer than the film's dramatic and structural defects. Our Daily Bread is also enhanced by Alfred Newman's stirring musical score, later borrowed by Darryl F. Zanuck for his production of Les Miserables (1935).

http://wc05.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:36740

[bridgit]

7. On The Waterfront, North Country...

:thumbsup:

[NewJeffCT]

44. Just saw "On the Waterfront" for the first time

last week on my long plane flight from overseas - good movie. Lee J Cobb (the crooked mob/union boss) seemed to specialize in playing a-holes... he was the holdout juror in "12 Angry Men" as well.

I finally got to hear the context of the famous "I coulda been a contenda" line, too.

[bridgit]

48. cool stuff, huh; was that a 'knock down drag out donnybrook' at the end or what...

and yeah Lee J. does great work :hi:

[RufusTFirefly]

8. And its close relative "A nous la liberte" (1931)

À nous la liberté

[applegrove]

10. Norma Rae

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

26. Norma Rae almost made my Machinist dad cry

He was, variously, shop steward, Treasurer of his local, President of his local, IAM-AW organizer, and then IAM-AW business rep. That last position was one he was elected to seven times during the last 14 years of his life.

What he liked about Norma Rae was how it highlighted the personal sacrifice of individuals whose friends and families turned against them when they tried to improve their lives.

Dad spent a lot of time with people like that, encouraging and nurturing those who were brave enough to collect the initial signatures needed to get unions into their shops.

He could do it because he once was one of those people. When he came home from WWII, the factory where his dad had worked gave him a job, his dad having died while he was in basic training. His dad was anti-union, and management thought my dad would be the same. They were wrong.

Dad was brave and tireless in his efforts to spread worker rights. He literally worked seven days a week, and countless nights, negotiating with management and helping the rank-and-file. I think about him all the time, and today, as on every Labor Day, I thank him with gratitude and love.

[applegrove]

28. What a great life your dad lived. You should write it up and make an OP of it.

These are the people we should be thinking of today.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

31. I did - back in 2005. :) Here's the link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4649263&mesg_id=4649263

Thanks for reminding me of it. I knew I had written about Dad in the past but I forgot I posted a thread about him. I think I gave him a good tribute with that post - it choked me up re-reading it - so I added it to my journal.

I thank you in his memory. :hug:

[applegrove]

32. Put it up again. It is a great story of a great man!!

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

42. He was no saint, but he was great

Dad had an explosive temper and authoritarian nature that took him years to understand and subdue. But he never stopped trying to understand himself and his world, and never stopped working to improve both. We had our conflicts when younger but I am very grateful that we were reconciled as we both matured.

I think I will repost. He and Mom both deserve the remembrance. :)

[applegrove]

43. Great. Do it!

[Nay]

11. An Italian film called "A Brief Vacation" about a woman who works

in a tire factory, goes to the doc who finds a spot on her lung--she goes to the mts for a rest cure, and realizes her work and personal life are shit. Great movie. Saw it 30 years ago.

[RufusTFirefly]

17. Special film. Thanks for reminding me!

I think I must have seen it about 30 years ago, too! I'd almost forgotten it.

[SOS]

12. "Life and Debt"

A great film about the effects of globalization on Jamaica.

Prisons filled with Chinese slaves.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Norma Rae

"Union!"

[Fridays Child]

51. Yes!

[upi402]

14. Matewan

Has good actors and at a foreign film pace.

umw all the way
thanks grandpa!

[Fridays Child]

52. Second that!

[salin]

16. indirect reference: Cradle Will Rock (1999)

glimpse into the WPA era

[salin]

18. a link to a review... and a big rec. from salin to see it!

http://www.reelviews.net/movies/c/cradle.html

excerpt: Cradle Will Rock is Tim Robbins' most challenging feature to date. A combination screwball comedy and period piece drama, the film makes us laugh while presenting themes that are as relevant today as they were six decades ago. Intertwining the stories of more than a dozen characters and using a style that variously recalls the work of Preston Sturges, Orson Welles, and Robert Altman, Robbins generates a pace that is often frantic. Cradle Will Rock is not without its flaws - but, as always, it's far more agreeable to experience a movie that occasionally stumbles because the filmmaker is ambitious, as opposed to the opposite.

This is Robbins' third outing behind the camera, and, although his efforts have been radically different in tone and temperament, they have shared one common feature: a social conscience. Bob Roberts, Robbins' debut, was a blistering satire about how the media can build up and tear down political candidates. Dead Man Walking, the 1995 critical success that won Susan Sarandon a Best Actress Oscar, offered a frank and uncompromising view of the death penalty from several perspectives. Now, with Cradle Will Rock, Robbins looks at two issues that are different but related: freedom of expression and what it means for an artist to prostitute himself or herself.

Cradle Will Rock is, according to the film, (mostly) based on a true tale. Actually, it's more like five episodes that are thematically and, at times, narratively, linked. The primary story tells of the efforts of director Orson Welles (Angus MacFadyen), producer John Houseman (Cary Elwes), writer Marc Blitzstein (Hank Azaria), and their cast to put on the pro-Union play "The Cradle Will Rock" despite attempts by the U.S. government to close it down. Folded into this tale are the struggles of Hallie Flanagan (Cherry Jones) to keep the Dies Committee from cutting financial support to the WPA (which funded the Federal Theater program) because of alleged pro-Communist propeganda in the plays. Meanwhile, Nelson Rockerfeller (John Cusack) hires artist Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) to paint a mural in the lobby of Rockerfeller Center, then balks when he sees the final product. Steel magnate Gray Mathers (Philip Baker Hall) flirts with Mussolini's mistress, Margherita Sarfatti (Susan Sarandon), while his flighty wife, the Countess (Vanessa Redgrave), pursues social causes. And an alcoholic ventriloquist (Bill Murray) believes that communists are infiltrating vaudeville, but his attempts to do something about them alienate him from everyone he knows.

[RufusTFirefly]

20. I strongly second salin's recommendation of "Cradle Will Rock"

And although it's a film about many things as well, I think it is a direct reference to labor. It's also a terrific movie. When I recommend it to friends, a lot of them mistakenly think I'm talking about some babysitter horror movie, not this thoughtful, entertaining, star-studded movie about artists during the Depression and the huge pressure to prostitute one's art and capitulate to corporate control.

[rndmprsn]

24. another great film...

[Captain Hilts]

19. Tracy and Hepburn's "Desk Set," about workers being displaced by computers.

Supposedly, the workers and the computer will all live happily ever after. But the arguments made by employees and management in this movie all reflect what we're hearing now....

[no_hypocrisy]

21. Metropolis

by Fritz Lang

[AngryAmish]

22. Disorderlies

[LostInAnomie]

45. It truly is a spiritually moving work of art.

There is no finer depiction of what can happen when management and labor work together.

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

23. Norma Rae

[Cirque du So-What]

27. Solidarity! All for One and One for All!

This was the slogan that rallied the Wobblies - the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) - in the early 20th century. Their organization of unskilled workers into one big union changed the face of labor relations and the course of labor history.

The 1979 documentary The Wobblies - directed by Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer - chronicles the still-fiery voices of some surviving wobblies, some of whom were in their 90s. It's a great way to gain insight into the last vestiges of the 'Gilded Era' and the corporate greed of the robber barons. There are valuable lessons in this film for today's labor activists.

[NoPasaran]

29. Harlan County, USA

Kentucky coal miners strike for a union contract in the 1970s.

[Fridays Child]

33. Silkwood

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086312/

[BlooInBloo]

34. A little off of what you might have in mind, but All The Right Moves was good....

EDIT: I won't bother trying to get Zoolander to fly :rofl:

[mitchum]

36. I agree with you; it was well done

[mitchum]

35. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" ((I'm not joking) along with "Matewan" "Harlan County USA"...

"Blue Collar" "Bloodbrothers" "Grapes Of Wrath"

[alfredo]

38. Harlan County USA has my vote.

Remember the singer in the movie? That was Nimrod Workman. He was the singer at the funeral in "Coal-miner's Daughter."

You can find him on this site:
http://www.folkstreams.net/

You can see him here near the end of this wonderful video. He's lot healthier in this video than he was during the days of the above movies. His breathing had improved.


http://www.folkstreams.net/film,128

[suffragette]

39. "The Take"

http://www.thetake.org/index.cfm?page_name=synopsis



In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave.

All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.

In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.

~snip~
Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.



This is an incredibly moving film of people fighting back for their employment and dignity.

[vireo]

40. "The Devil and Miss Jones"

Cantankerous tycoon John P. Merrick (Charles Coburn) goes undercover as a shoe clerk at his own New York department store to identify agitators trying to form a union, after seeing a newspaper picture of his employees hanging him in effigy. He befriends fellow clerk Mary Jones (Jean Arthur) and her recently fired boyfriend Joe O'Brien (Robert Cummings), a labor union organizer. Through his firsthand experiences, he grows more sympathetic to the needs of his workers, while finding unexpected love with sweet-natured clerk Elizabeth Ellis (Spring Byington).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_and_Miss_Jones

I especially enjoy Cumming's patriotic speech at the police station.

Honorable mention to Chaplin's "Modern Times."

[PCIntern]

41. "The Devil In Miss Jones"

Lonely suicidal worker makes deal with Devil (Management)...leads to pseudo-joy and short-lived self-actualization. Management collects debt, Miss Jones spends eternity in Hell with schizophrenic impotent man, has given up rights for minimal short-term satisfaction.

Should be a lesson to all scabs and sell-outs!

:rofl:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

47. Ådalen '31

A Swedish film that takes place during the period when Scandinavian workers were beginning to push for what eventually turned into the social welfare state.

[globalvillage]

49. Good family film

Newsies

July, 1899: When Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise the distribution price one-tenth of a cent per paper, ten cents per hundred, the newsboys, poor enough already, are outraged. Inspired by the strike put on by the trolley workers, Jack "Cowboy" Kelly (Christian Bale) organizes a newsboys' strike. With David Jacobs (David Moscow) as the brains of the new union, and Jack as the voice, the weak and oppressed found the strength to band together and challenge the powerful. Written by Kaitlin Dwyer Rankins

http://imdb.com/title/tt0104990/plotsummary

It's a musical, and one of my favorite family films. Especially appropriate today.

[Fridays Child]

50. The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080048/