In Schrader’s first go as a director, a trio of coworkers, two black and one white—a brilliant bit of casting with Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto, and Harvey Keitel, who are all stellar here—work on the production line in a Detroit automobile factory. They are fed up with the heinous conditions that plague their job site, and it dawns on them that their union is as much to blame as their bosses. Feeling like they have no other option, the guys pulls off a clumsy robbery at union headquarters, and what they find suddenly pushes them out of their league: Violence, paranoia, rivalry, and recrimination erupt all around. At once a critique of union practice and a close observation of life in the American Rust Belt, Blue Collar is a triumphant directorial debut.