Blue Collar – Filmed in Detroit

Cars Culture

For our money Blue Collar is one of the greatest films about the realities of the car manufacturing industry

The gritty 1978 movie, starring a straight-talking Richard Pryor and a brawny Harvey Keitel, was shot in the Ford River Rouge works in Detroit and is from a time before the robots took over, when men still made cars out of sweat and sparks.

It examines the life of car workers and union malpractice in the American ‘rust belt’.

The incredible theme song was performed by Captain Beefheart who had been cajoled out of his desert exile for the gig. The story goes that he had to be locked in the studio to complete the recording.

You can hear his angst as he growls the adlibbed line:

“I’m a hardworking f**ked over man”

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