Zeke (Richard Pryor), Jerry (Harvey Keitel) and Smokey (Yaphet Kotto) are three friends who work in the assembly floor of a Detroit car company. The work is hard, and Zeke, the youngest of the three, is frustrated with the unwillingness of the auto workers union to help their members, while his older friends are more equanimous. When Zeke runs into money problems, he convinces his friends to help him burgle the local union office, an act which starts a chain of violent events.
This film has a surprising and effective performance by comic Richard Pryor, sans moustache, in the dramatic role as the voluble and vocal Zeke, who uses colourful language to get his point across. His co-stars don't have such flashy roles: Yaphett Kotto's Smokey is a quiet ex-con while Harvey Keitel's Jerry is an established family man.
The beginning of the film is interesting because it sets the scene to explore some of the social issues of the working class in America, a topic that seems to be completely ignored by mainstream American films. However, once writer-director Paul Shrader and co-writer Leonard Schrader introduce an FBI investigation into union corruption, the premise is effectively forgotten and the film turns into an OK low-key thriller.
3 out of 5 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment