“Blue Collar” (1978)
“Killing Them Softly,” like many key ’70s crime movies, is a film as much about the problems of capitalism and the toughness of recession as it is about hits and robberies. And one of the more impressive examples in that milieu is “Blue Collar,” the directorial debut of “Taxi Driver” writer Paul Schrader, which stars Harvey Keitel, Richard Pryor and Yaphet Kotto as a trio of Detroit auto workers who, fed up with management and their “representatives,” decide to rob the union headquarters. They don’t find much cash, but do find evidence of corruption and links to organized crime, which leads them to attempt to blackmail the union instead. There was almost as much drama on set as there was on the screen. The three leads hated each other, and Pryor pulled a gun on Schrader at one point, contributing to the director having a nervous breakdown. But it certainly doesn’t harm the film, as it’s a near-classic crime tale that mostly avoids trappings of the genre, searing in its evisceration of corporate and union corruption, noble in its defense of the working man, and feeling drawn deeply from real life. And its honesty carries over to the performances; they might not have gelled in real life, but Kotto, Keitel and Pryor’s friendship is entirely authentic, and the strains in it, when they come, are heartwrenching. Pryor in particular is excellent, cast way against type, but proved that his talents went beyond his comic genius.
“Straight Time” (1978)
Based on Eddie Bunker‘s novel “No Beast So Fierce” — an ex-con turned crime fiction author and occasional actor (he played Mr. Blue in “Reservoir Dogs”) — in many circles of cinephelia, “Straight Time” is an uncrowned jewel that doesn’t get enough love. Originally meant to be Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut, after several weeks of shooting, Hoffman realized he was in over his head by starring and directing in the same movie and he asked his friend, Belgian-born filmmaker Ulu Grosbard, to take over the movie (they met when Grosbard was directing an off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge,” where Hoffman served as stage manager and assistant director). While it nearly cost them their friendship (and did for several years), “Straight Time” is a somber, gritty and vastly underestimated thriller. Featuring an excellent supporting cast including Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh, and Kathy Bates, Hoffman stars as Max Dembo, a lifelong thief just paroled after six long years who’s hoping to go straight, play by the rules and get a regular job. But hounded by a manipulative asshole parole officer (Walsh) who’s more than happy to throw him back in the pen at a moment’s notice, Dembo’s desire to stay on the straight and narrow is severely tested with every second of his newfound freedom. While he meets and woos a young girl (Russell) while job hunting and wants to start something anew with her, Dembo eventually snaps when the officer tries to pin a bullshit drug charge on him, realizing he’s simply never going to catch a break. The inevitable happens, and Dembo returns to a life of crime, eventually planning a big jewel heist with some old accomplices. Throughout, Hoffman embodies this gentle ex-con with a short fuse with effortless realism, and if you didn’t know better at the time, you’d have thought the actor was simply playing himself, his natural cool and confidence is so in the pocket. There’s a lot of nice atypical texture for a convict; Dembo is a charmer who is soft-spoken, empathetic, tense and nervy when crimes are going down. Simply put, “Straight Time” is one worth tracking down.
5 Great ’70s Crime Thrillers
About The Author
Where is Chinatown?
While you have all submitted great movies from the 70s that you have seen,
and they are all GREAT movies i'm glad you guys appreciate in this age of…franchising…
I dont think the movies you're listing are, in part, so to speak, what the thread's author is shooting for or about what Killing Them Softly or the 5 classics KTS pays homage to or represents.
I feel like we're listing them to show our intelligence of 70s cinema.
No disrespect! Please! I am a fan of 70's cinema as you guys are. The movies you posters are listing are great milestones in a forgotten, and sometimes under-rated 70's cinema scene, but they dont have "throwback" political sense or "omerta" of what KTS was resurrecting (from Eddie Coyle, Straight Time, Prime Cut or the other 2 of the 5 movies mentioned by the thread's author) in it's story.
Where (i'll pick Prime Cut to begin with) the mob, represented by Lee Marvin, went to the mid-west to clear up a clerical error with Gene Hackman, this was where the "discipline" of what has to done within an organization came in. And an undisciplined "member" of the organization needed to be re-disciplined. Just as Pitt's character does to Liotta's character in KTS.
The state of the U.S., the underdevelopment shown, barren and broken down real estate and the pipe dream schemes explained, to make a sense for the break down in the "system", the trust issues in the mob, the hate and distrust for the government, its filthy corruption, hollow ….how it effected "business as usual" within the "businesses".
In each of the 5 classic movies , every main character(s) had a way to beat the system or keep their system running their way. The filth, the dirt, the attitude of these 2nd story characters and scumbag wanna-be drug dealers (whose plans faded and crumbled) was always present and overbearing. That looming gov't shadow of despair was always following these characters.
Im sorry, but, although Bad News Bears was a great movie, it has nothing to do with what the author is pointing to. Across 110 St, Serpico (more of a core-value representation…to me…of police corruption and blue brotherhood) and Dirty Harry follow that value as law enforcement. They'd be a great representations to call back on for a movie released today.
Such as, if the new movie dealt with the lone-wolf, no rules cop who got things done (like Dirty Harry).
The Outfit?…maybe…
Hickey and Boggs?…definitely had a tie-in with 2 guys caught quite by accident in a machine they became small cogs in, but, they were private dicks. Absolutely a great picture!!
Mean Streets was a character that was dealing with himself as well as tryin to keep his friend alive in a business he just wanted to leave. Not really a piece to point at this time, but, a great movie all the same. Charley Varrick was more focused on a thief and his mistake, no mob affiliation at all, who wanted to get out alive. Great movie, great period, but didnt focus on what KTS and the 5 predecessors focused on.
But, then, i could be COMPLETELY wrong about what the author of this thread was sayin.
'Ats just me.
Peace n Love!
Really terrific list
Here's another five that would look great on there.
Dirty Harry – 1971
Across a 110th Street – 1972
Mean Streets – 1973
Serpico – 1973
Taxi Driver – 1976
The 70's were something else, especially in New York.
I would add Don Siegel's fantastic Charley Varrick, with Walther Matthau. Amazing film!
Great list, seen all of them.
Really Great List but I've seen everything on here except for Prime Cut and Straight Time. Guess be watching them soon though.
What do you mean by "but also 'The Bad News Bears' "? I don't know when you last looked at it, if ever, but except for "Eddie Coyle", "BNB" is better than any of the movies you've listed here.
Flawless choices, superbly written piece about an era and genre closer to my heart than most. Might suggest the Bill Cosby/Robert Culp private-eye drama "Hickey and Boggs," penned by Walter Hill and about as far removed from the world of I Spy and Cosby's comedy as one could imagine and Hill's "The Driver" which has been covered in recent times as an antecedent of "Drive" but is worth mentioning again.
Badass American cinema!