Working class cinema: a video guide
Libcom.org's guide to working class films and TV shows, showing class struggles, revolutionary situations and everyday lives.
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Arranged alphabetically in order of the nationality of the director (or creator in the case of TV shows with multiple directors).
Brad Anderson
- The Machinist (2004) - Christian Bale stars as a factory worker whose insomnia has left him emaciated, and whose colleagues turn against him when he was involved in a workplace accident causing one worker to lose an arm.
Shari Springer Berman
- American Splendor - Adaptation of Harvey Pekar's comic series, which he wrote whilst working as a file clerk in a hospital.
Herbert J. Biberman
- Salt of the Earth (1953) - Film based on the 1951 miners' strike in New Mexico, and starring many of those involved, it shows how miners and their families all take part in the long hard struggle against the mining company. Made in 1953, it was originally banned as part of the 'Red Scare'.
Kathryn Bigelow
- Strange Days (1995) - An enjoyable if flawed sci-fi action movie, part of which seeks to investigate the nature of voyeurism via memory implants.
Lizzie Borden
- Born in Flames (1983) - Sci-fi flick about a post-revolutionary social democratic NYC in which gender and race issues have not been solves. In mockumentary style, it follows two women's guerrilla groups, one majority white and one majority POC.
James Bridges
- The China Syndrome - A nuclear reactor almost goes into meltdown, whilst a team of reporters are on site covering a story.
Steve Buscemi
- Trees Lounge - A mechanic, sacked for stealing out of the till, drinks his sorrows away over one summer in a Bukowski-esque anti-tale.
John Carpenter
- Escape from New York and Escape from LA - Bakunin with an eyepatch is forced to save the world.
- They Live - A special pair of sunglasses reveal billboards and adverts aren't what they seem.
Coen brothers
- Barton Fink (1991) - Film about a playwright working in Hollywood in 1941 exploring high and low culture, fascism, World War II and working conditions in the creative industries.
- The Big Lebowski - The Dude is a loafer that would have made Paul Lafargue blush. When a case of mistaken identity ruins his rug, he is dragged into something far bigger.
Laurie Collyer
- Sherrybaby (2006) - Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a young drug addict who leaves prison to collect her child from family members who have been looking after her.
Ivan Dixon
- The Spook Who Stood by the Door (1973) - The CIA hires a token black agent, who then uses his skills to help the militant black power movement. With a soundtrack by Herbie Hancock.
Bill Duke
- Deep Cover - Focusing on the role of the police in the war on drugs, an undercover cop begins to enjoy the rewards.
Ava DuVernay
- Selma (2014) - Dramatisation of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 for voting rights for African-Americans.
Ryan Fleck
- Half Nelson - A radical inner city school teacher battles his demons with crack cocaine whilst trying to inspire his class.
- Sugar - Miguel has dreamt all his life of leaving the Dominican Republican to play baseball professionally but he soon discovers it isn't all it's cracked up to be.
John Ford
- Grapes of Wrath (1940) - Classic film adaptation of Steinbeck's superb book depicting dispossessed peasant farmers from Oklahoma migrate to California to become wage labourers.
John Flynn
- Rolling Thunder - A tortured Vietnam veteran returns home to suburban America but nothing will be the same again.
John Frankenheimer
- Seconds - When an middle aged man trades his identity and his face, he only realises what he's given up when it's too late.
William Friedkin
- Sorcerer - Remake of Wages for Fear.
Brian Goodman
- What Doesn't Kill You - A small time criminal struggles to pay the bills and support his family.
Colin Higgins
- 9 to 5 (1980) - Comedy three female office workers realise their dream of overthrowing their sexist, egotistical and bigoted bosses.
Albert Hughes
- Dead Presidents - A black Vietnam vet joins a political organisation funding itself with armed robbery, based on the story of Haywood T. Kirkland.
John Huston
Patty Jenkins
- Monster (2003) - Crime drama based on the real story of a sex worker who was executed for killing six men.
Mike Judge
- Office Space - When Peter sees an hypnotherapist, he inadvertently begins a refusal of work while his friends at the company are going to be made redundant and want revenge.
Jeremy Kagan
- Katherine (1975, a.k.a. The Radical) - Low-budget TV movie based on the life of Diana Oughton of the Weather Underground urban guerrilla group, starring Henry Winkler of Fonzie fame.
Barbara Kopple
- Harlan County USA - Documentary of the 1976 Brookside strike and the subsequent agreement.
Stanley Kubrick
- Spartacus (1960) - Historical epic about the [URL=http://libcom.org/history/many-enemies-there-are-slaves’-spartacus-politics-servile-rebellion-late-republic] Spartacus slave rebellion[/URL].
- The Killing - The robbery on a racetrack has been meticulously planned, but a scheming wife could end up getting someone killed, if they can pull it off.
Spike Lee
- Do the Right Thing - Film set in a New York neighbourhood, where class and racial tensions collide on the hottest day of the summer.
- Malcolm X - Biopic on the life of black power leader, Malcolm X, from his childhood through to his conversion to Islam in prison and his eventual split with the Nation of Islam.
- Summer of Sam - Broad look at the white community in the South Bronx of 1977, with punk, disco and the serial killer Son of Sam raging over a summer.
Sidney Lumet
- Network - When a news reporter is thrown off the air for voicing subversive opinions, the network see in him an opportunity to increase ratings.
Adrian Lyne
- Jacob's Ladder - A Vietnam veteran suffers delusions from the alleged drug trials administered during the war.
Michael Mann
- Heat - Work is the obsession for criminals and police alike, in this melancholy noir.
- Collateral - One night with a taxi driver, whose fare is a hitman directing him to his jobs around the city.
Andrew Niccol
- In Time - Time has replaced capital, and life runs out for those with nothing left on their clock.
Jeff Nichols
- Take Shelter - A construction contractor struggles with the recession and his worsening grip on reality.
Mike Nichols
- Silkwood - Based on the true story of Karen Silkwood, who raised concerns about radiation from the nuclear plant she worked at and was found dead in suspicious circumstances.
Kimberly Peirce
- Boys Don't Cry (1999) - Powerful dramatisation of the real story of Brandon Teena, a young trans man who was brutally murdered by a group of male acquaintances after they discovered he had female genitalia.
Kevin Reynolds
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) - Riproaring action flick about England's legendary folk hero, Robin Hood, who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.
Martin Ritt
- Norma Rae - Inspired by a speech, a factory worker begins to organise at her workplace, based on the story of Crystal Lee Sutton.
Mark Romanek
- Never Let Me Go (2010) - A love triangle develops between three friends coming-of-age in a dystopian England.
George Romero
- Dawn of the Dead - 4 people hold up in a shopping centre as the zombies have taken over, and try to return to normality
- Land of the Dead - The zombies begin organising against the last remaining human city in the US.
Stuart Rosenberg
- Cool Hand Luke (1967) - A petty criminal refuses to conform to a brutal prison system and inspires his fellow inmates.
Gary Ross and Francis Lawrence
- The Hunger Games (2012-2015) - 4-part film series of action film adaptations of the sci-fi novels of the same name by Suzanne Collins, where a teenage girl takes on a dystopian United States' dictatorial government.
Richard Sarafin
- Vanishing Point - A car courier races across the country to make an impossible delivery, with an ending that symbolised the death of the hippie movement.
Tom Savini
- Night of the Living Dead 1990 - Improved remake of the civil rights film with zombies, which places the damsel in distress of the original, Barbra, as a strong leader.
John Sayles
- Matewan - The story of the Battle in Matewan, 1920, where miners fought private police.
Paul Schrader
- Light Sleeper - An ageing drug dealer is faced with finding legitimate employment.
- Blue Collar - 3 workers strapped for cash decide to rob their ineffectual union.
- American Gigolo - A gigolo for the wealthy becomes embroiled in scandal when he falls for a senator's wife.
Martin Scorsese
- Taxi Driver - Damaged Vietnam vet cum taxi driver battles with New York, and himself.
- After Hours - A chance date for an office worker turns into a nightmare trying to get back home in time for tomorrow's shift.
- Bringing Out the Dead - An overworked and conscientious ambulance driver begins to slip into insanity.
David Simon
- Generation Kill (2008) - TV miniseries dramatising the journalistic account of a Rolling Stone journalist embedded in a US military unit in Iraq.
- The Corner (2000) - TV miniseries looking at the lives of poor working class people in Baltimore against the background of the war on drugs.
- The Wire (2002-8) - Widely considered the best TV show ever made, The Wire examines the major institutions of American society over five series, revealing the flaws of the police, the courts, the prisons, the media, politicians, organise crime and more.
Tarsem Singh
- The Fall - A stuntman lies in the hospital bed, paralysed from his first film, where he befriends a small girl and loses himself in fantastical storytelling.
Gary Sinise
- Of Mice and Men (1992) - Film adaptation of Steinbeck's book which follows two farm labourers who dream of owning their own land.
Mario Van Peebles
- Panther - Film depicting the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, and the American government campaign against them. Based on real events but unfortunately with a big dose of Hollywood exaggeration, particularly at the end of the film.
Fred Zinneman
- Behold a Pale Horse (1964) - Film loosely based on the life of anarchist guerrilla [URL=http://libcom.org/history/articles/1915-1960- francisco-sabate-llopart] Sabate[/URL], it depicts an exiled Republican bandit who returns to Spain while police set a trap.
Various
- Into the West (2005) - TV miniseries which tells the story of the birth of modern America from the perspective of Native Americans, and working class white and black people.
Santiago Grasso
- Empleo - A man makes his way to work, finding people being used as objects.
Héctor Olivera
- La Patagonia Rebelde - Based on anarchist Osvaldo Bayer's book, this is the true story of the massacre of FORA organised labourers in the 1920s.
Gillian Armstrong
- My Brilliant Career (1979) - At the dawn of the 20th century a young woman in the Australian outback dreams of becoming a writer.
Belinda Cheyko
- City Loop (2000, originally known as Bored Olives) - A group of bored pizzeria workers seek pleasure over the course of the night.
Andrew Dominik
- Killing Them Softly - The Boston mob sends a hitman to kill those responsible for a card game robbery during the 2012 presidential election.
John Hillcoat
- Ghosts of the Civil Dead - Both prison guards and prisoners are manipulated into a riot to secure funding for a new maximum security complex.
David Michod
- Animal Kingdom (2010) - The gritty story of a teenager in a criminal family, and a detective who thinks he can save him.
George Miller
- Mad Max and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior - The defining films of what the apocalypse will look like, petrol has become the only commodity in a world of fast cars and dangerous roads.
Michael Rymer
- Angel Baby - A man released from a mental institution struggles to stay healthy with a baby on the way and his first job in years.
Stephen Wallace
- Stir - Written by an inmate involved, Stir shows what provoked the 1974 Bathurst Jail riots.
Chantal Akerman
- Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - Film which follows a single-mother and sex worker as she monotonously goes through the tasks of housework and daily reproduction in real time.
Agnes Varda
- Cleo From 5 To 7 (1961) - A young woman walks round Paris as she waits for the results of a medical examination – a finely observed study of anxiety and the search for hope.
Andrea Arnold
- Fish Tank (2009) - A volatile 15-year-old girl lives with her mother in East London council estate, and her mother's boyfriend becomes attracted to her. Trigger warning for domestic violence and underage sex.
- Red Road (2006) - A female CCTV operator in Glasgow spots a man from her past and begins to monitor him. Trigger warning for sexual violence.
Roy Battersby
- Leeds United! (1974) - This film tells the story of the 1970 wildcat strike by around 30,000 mostly female textile workers in Leeds, who battled the employers and their own union.
Alan Bleasdale
- Boys from the Blackstuff (1982) - 6 part TV miniseries looking at the lives of intermittently-employed casual Liverpudlian tarmac workers.
- GBH (1991) - 7 part TV miniseries with a fictionalised account of Derek Hatton of Militant running Liverpool Council in the 1980s.
Charlie Chaplin
- Modern Times (1936) - Chaplin plays a factory worker overwhelmed by the machinery of his workplace, and depicts the impact of the great depression on working people.
- The Great Dictator (1940) - A satirical spoof on Hitler produced during World War II, as Chaplin portrays both anti-Semitic dictator and his doppelgänger, a Jewish barber. Contains one of the most memorable speeches in film history.
- The Immigrant (1917) - A silent romantic comedy in which Chaplin plays a migrant to the US who is accused of theft on his voyage.
- The Kid (1921) - Chaplin's first full-length film, where his "Tramp" character adopts a child abandoned by his unwed mother and they become partners in crime.
Alan Clarke
- Scum - Nihilistic drama set in a young offenders institute.
- Elephant - Experimental short about the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Nigel Cole
- Made in Dagenham (2010) - Dramatisation of the 1968 strike by female workers at Ford's plant in Dagenham, Essex, for pay parity with men.
Paddy Considine
- Tyrannosaur - A bitter alcoholic finds salvation in a woman who seems to be perfect on the outside, but harbours an unhappy secret.
Bill Douglas
- My Childhood (1972) - Autobiographical first part of a trilogy set in Scotland in the 1940s. Set in a mining village with material and emotional poverty, this is about as far from Hollywood cinema as you can get.
Terry Gilliam
- Brazil (1985) - Dystopian epic in which a low level state bureaucrat who escapes the drudgery of his job into flights of fancy, becomes embroiled in a real adventure when he attempts to resolve a financial irregularity.
Mark Herman
- Brassed Off (1996) - Comedy drama about the difficulties faced by a colliery brass band when its pit is facing closure.
Duncan Jones
- Moon - The moon has been colonised, and is manned for 3 years. Sam Bell is coming to the end of his contract when he begins to experience hallucinations.
Mike Leigh
- Naked - A drifter meets similarly lost souls whilst living on the streets of London.
Ken Loach
- Ae Fond Kiss… (2004) - Sparks fly in Glasgow when an Asian man begins a relationship with a white woman.
- Cathy Come Home (1966) - Hugely influential, documentary-style feature length TV special highlighting issues of homelessness, unemployment and social services. Housing charity Shelter was set up in its wake.
- Kes (1969) - A young English working class boy spends his spare time caring for his pet kestrel.
- Land and Freedom (1995) - Loose adaptation of George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, following the [url =/tags/poum] POUM [/URL] fighting in the Spanish Revolution.
- Sweet Sixteen (2002) - Determined to have a normal life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager tries to save money for a home.
- Riff Raff (1991) - Comedy following the everyday lives of a construction worker, his girlfriend and an unemployed pop star.
- The Navigators (2001) - Film following five railway workers affected by the 1995 privatisation of British Rail and how this changes their lives.
- The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) - Against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fighting the resistance to the British, but take two different paths.
Steve McQueen
- 12 Years a Slave (2013) - Powerful dramatisation of the tale of Solomon Northup, a free African-American who was kidnapped into slavery.
Shane Meadows
- This is England, This is England '86 and This is England '88 - Documenting a group of skinheads as they grow up in a northern town.
- Dead Man's Shoes - A Gulf War veteran returns his home town to dish out revenge to local gangsters responsible for an unknown crime.
Sam Mendes
- Jarhead (2005) - A realistic look at the daily life of US troops in the first Iraq war, and the boredom and isolation they face.
Lewis Milestone
- Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) - Dramatisation of the famous mutiny against authoritarian Capt Bligh.
Gary Oldman
- Nil by Mouth - Life for an extended family on a South London council estate.
Tony Richardson
Ridley Scott
- Alien - Space workers are hunted down by an unnatural force.
- Blade Runner - Four androids look to extend their lifespan whilst being hunted by a policeman, in a dystopic Los Angeles.
Martin Stellman
- For Queen and Country (1988) - Denzel Washington stars as a discharged British paratrooper who returns from the Falklands, re-enter civilian life and faces poverty, racism and discrimination.
Matthew Warchus
- Pride (2014) - Utterly superb dramatisation of the story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners: a group of gay men and lesbians based on London who collected money to support miners on strike 1984-5.
Gary Burns
- Waydowntown - Office workers bet their salaries who can last the longest without stepping outside, using Calgary's skywalks to get around.
Gonzalo Justiniano
- Candy or Mint (1990) - Niki and his friends are members of the marginalised underclass living on the outskirts of Santiago. During Chile's transition from dictatorship to democracy (1988-1990), they forge a path from drug- and drink-fuelled nihilism and petty crime into the world of market-driven illegality and Niki begins a seemingly predestined relationship with the middle-class "loca", Manuela.
Pablo Larrain
- Fuga - The manuscript of a composer is rediscovered by students. They learn how he came to wrote it, and how it was sent him to an asylum.
- Tony Manero - A man obsessed with the character from Saturday Night Fever is due to enter a television contest to crown the best Manero impersonator, whilst Pinochet's disappearances carry on in the background.
Tsai Ming-liang
- Rebels of a Neon God - A pair of friends make their living robbing arcade machine chips.
Li Yang
- Blind Shaft - Two men killing miners for compensation find a conscience.
Jia Zhangke
- Unknown Pleasures - Two unemployed friends chain smoke and wander about.
Nicolas Winding Refn
- Pusher trilogy - Interconnected stories of drug dealers falling from grace in Copenhagen.
- Drive - A single mother falls for a moonlighter who'll do anything to protect her.
Thomas Vinterberg
- The Celebration (1998, aka Festen) - At a big celebration of a bourgeois family, a secret emerges. Warning for discussion of themes which some find triggering.
Paul Verhoeven
- Starship Troopers (1997) - Argentinian Aryans fight bugs in space.
- Total Recall (1990) - Sci-fi action classic, in which a construction worker in a dystopian future goes to have memories implanted of a trip to Mars, where there is an ongoing rebellion.
Aki Kaurismäki
- Shadows in Paradise - A binman falls in love with a supermarket checkout girl he sees on his rounds.
Jacques Becker
- Le Trou - Four tight knit prisoners have been preparing their breakout for months when a new cellmate is added. Can they trust him?
Jean-Louis Comolli
- La Cecilia - Based on Giovanni Rossi's memoirs of the little known Colonia Cecilia, the Brazilian emperor offers land to anarchists to create a commune. But tensions grow as they try to shake off the beliefs of the old world.
Henri-Georges Clouzot
- Wages of Fear - A group of destitute men in South America agree to drive explosives across the country in a bid to escape.
Catherine Breillat
- Fat Girl (2001) - Controversial film centring on the relationship between two sisters, 15 and 12 years, and their attitudes to sex - it is a cruel though perhaps honest depiction – the result is dark and disturbing.
Christine Edzard
- Little Dorrit (1987) - Critically acclaimed two-part screen adaption of Dickens’ teeming novel of corruption, capitalism and greed.
Marin Karmitz
- Blow for Blow (1972) - Film about a wildcat strike at a textile plant in rural France. Produced in a democratic manner, the film mixes actors with real workers playing themselves and falls somewhere between being a documentary and a work of fiction.
Louis Malle