“It is an angry, radical movie about the vise that traps workers between big industry and big labor. It’s also an enormously entertaining movie. ”
When Detroit autoworkers Zeke Brown (Richard Pryor), Jerry Bartowski (Harvey Keitel) and Smokey James (Yaphet Kotto) decide to rob their own union, they are initially disappointed by the relatively small haul. However, upon closer inspection, the three amateur thieves discover that they have made off with something potentially much more valuable than money: the union's ledger, filled with bogus figures and links to organized crime. Should they blackmail the union or go to the authorities? Co-written with his brother Leonard, Paul Schrader’s directorial debut is also arguably his masterpiece. A classic of 70s cinema and as grimly relevant today as it was then.
