Working Class Heroes

List creator: JLeen Created on: September 2, 2003 - 5:42 AM PDT Description: Class struggle in film or just good examples of working class culture. Please send me any of your suggestions.

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	movie title	related list	average rating	MPAA rating	watch	rent	buy
	On the Waterfront (1954)			Not Rated
Great depiction of the "shape up"
	Roger & Me (1989)
Michael Moore in his quest to interview Roger Smith, CEO of General Motors.
	Bread & Roses (2000)
Justice for Janitors in LA
	Matewan (1987)
Wobblies, Pinkertons, and a wonderful portrayal of how the bosses used race as a divisive tool to try to quash organizing.
	Norma Rae (1979)
Union organizing in the South.
	Salt of the Earth (1954)
Great depiction of the community involvement in a lengthy strike. The miners' wives make the movie.
	Silkwood (1983)
Karen Silkwood takes on Kerr McGee.
	The Hustler (1961)			Not Rated
Good example of the pool hall culture
	The Pajama Game (1957)			Not Rated
Labor struggle with singing and dancing. It is Doris Day after all. Que sera..sera!
	Raining Stones (1993)			Not Rated
A modern tale of a British working class family who struggle to get by. The "extravagance" of a first communion dress places the family in dire straits.
	Brassed Off (1996)
A colliery band in Yorkshire faced with possible mine closures.
	How Green Was My Valley (1941)			Not Rated
1942 Academy Award winner for best picture. John Ford's look at a Welsh mining family and their community through the eyes of the youngest son.
	Billy Elliot (2000)
A young boy in a British mining town finds that he prefers ballet to boxing to his father's chagrin. This is a feel-good movie, so don't write the father off just yet.
	Bound for Glory (1976)
Woody Guthrie sings to the pickers in california and scuffles with the railroad bulls and goons along the way.
	Strike (1924)			Not Rated
Eisenstein's look at a strike in a Russian factory where the fat cat management will do anything to stop it.
	Office Space (1999)
Embezzling as a form of office worker rebellion.
	Clockwatchers (1997)
Temps of the world, unite.
	Haiku Tunnel (2001)
A hilarious send up of temp work in a San Francliscan law firm. Don't call it Flisco!
	Harlan County War (2000)			Not Rated
Female solidarity in the 1973 strike against Duke Mining which became the lynchpin for earning a UMWA contract in Harlan County, Kentucky.
	9 to 5 (1980)
A funny look at what we've all wanted to do to the boss at one time or another. If not for that blasted superego.
	Blue Collar (1978)
	Spring Forward (2000)
Two city park and rec workers develop a strong friendship. Thanks to zuzucat for hipping me to this film.
	Modern Times (1936)			Not Rated
	Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000)
Exotic dancers organize the Lusty Lady in our very own San Francisco.
	Newsies (1992)
A musical version of the 1899 newspaper boy strike in New York City.
	Meantime (1981)			Not Rated
A look at a British working class family who are all on the dole.
	Gung Ho (1986)
	Real Women Have Curves (2002)
A Mexican-American family struggling to get by in East LA. The women of the family work in a sweatshop, but the youngest girl wants to go to college.
	A Raisin in the Sun (1961)			Not Rated
An African-American family in 1950's Chicago wrestle with getting out of the ghetto and making a better life for themselves.
	Titanic (1997)
Class consciousness aboard a luxury liner. State rooms versus steerage. Guess which class makes it out on the lifeboats.
	Pelle the Conqueror (1988)
Lasse and Pelle immigrate to Denmark in search of the good life. Unfortunately, they find that working life on the Stone Farm is just as difficult as life in Sweden.
	I'm All Right, Jack (1959)			Not Rated
A classic send up of the class struggle.
	Mondays in the Sun (2002)
A realistic depiction of a group of locked out dockworkers in Northern Spain. They each struggle with bouts of despair while still maintaining their dignity and sense of comeraderie.
	Hoffa (1992)
	Cradle Will Rock (1999)
	Clerks (1994)
	Saturday Night & Sunday Morning (1961)			Not Rated
Albert Finney does a bang up job creating the angry young man who has a dead end job by day and a self-destructive night life.
	The Servant (1963)			Not Rated
	This Sporting Life (1963)			Not Rated
	The Man in the White Suit (1951)			Not Rated
Sidney Stratton develops an amazing indestructable material. Unfortunately, this revolutionary cloth puts him smack dab in the middle of the class struggle. The textile manufacturers want to stop him and so do the workers.
	American Dream (1990)
	Sacco and Vanzetti (1971)
A shoemaker and fresh fish vendor are railroaded by a court system more concerned about their anarchic politics than any evidence of a crime.
	Room at the Top (1959)			Not Rated
Joe Lampton has returned from the war set on a dream to break out of the blue collar life of his past regardless of the consequences.
	The Molly Maguires (1970)
	Liam (2000)
Set in Depression era Liverpool where a shipyard worker's family is faced with unemployment . Unfortunately the head of the household turns to the burgeoning fascist movement for answers and pays the price.
	Stella Dallas (1937)			Not Rated
	Panic in the Streets (1950)			Not Rated
A good depiction of the seamans' hiring hall and dockworkers in New Orleans.
	Vera Drake (2004)
	Harlan County USA (Criterion Collection) (1976)
	North Country (2005)
	A Nous La Liberte (Criterion Collection) (1931)