Lucy Saroyan Movies

Paul Schrader's directorial debut examines the trials of Detroit autoworkers living at the mercy of a heartless corporation and a corrupt union. Surviving from paycheck to paycheck, Checker Cab assembly linemen Zeke (Richard Pryor), Jerry (Harvey Keitel), and Smokey (Yaphet Kotto) scrape by and take pleasure in a few rounds of beer or bowling (and occasional illicit amusements). But when their money troubles pile up, Jerry and Smokey join Zeke in a desperate plan to steal cash from their local union office. Along with a piddling $600, they unexpectedly swipe evidence of union corruption. Deciding to use it for blackmail, the men discover instead how powerfully malevolent the union can be in a system that counts on petty divisiveness to keep the larger power structure intact. Inspired by stories of real-life disillusionment, Schrader and his brother/co-writer Leonard Schrader took on politically difficult issues of race and corporate labor, infusing the indictment of unions with a suggestion of post-Watergate paranoia about forces beyond the union that keep workers in their place. From the opening sequence of the assembly line to the final evocative freeze-frame, Schrader maintains an atmosphere of gritty realism, with the lead trio lending low-key dramatic force to a situation beyond their control. Too downbeat for a late '70s audience increasingly drawn to happier fare, Blue Collar flopped, yet it did earn Schrader critical accolades. Although he has reportedly since disowned the film, Blue Collar remains one of Schrader's best works, with Zeke and Jerry powered by the same sense of simmering frustration that would explode so effectively in Affliction two decades later. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

On a quiet midday in New York, along the Lexington Avenue subway line, the train designated "Pelham One Two Three" -- so named for its station of origin and time of departure -- makes its way down the East Side of Manhattan. One by one, three men board the train, and at 28th Street, a fourth man approaches the motorman (James Broderick) and points a pistol at him, ordering him to unlock the door to his cab and admit the man waiting there; meanwhile, another man points a gun at the conductor and threatens to kill him unless he holds the doors open and then closes them when the man talking to the motorman is aboard. Once on board, "Mr. Blue" (Robert Shaw) and "Mr. Green" (Martin Balsam) halt the train between stations, while "Mr. Brown" (Earl Hindeman) and "Mr. Gray" (Hector Elizondo) seal off the lead car. With Mr. Green at the controls, the front car is separated and isolated in the tunnel with 17 passengers aboard, and then Mr. Blue presents their demands over the radio: one million dollars in cash, within one hour, or they will start shooting one passenger each minute. On the other end, Transit Police Lieutenant Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau) must overcome his initial disbelief to deal with this threat, amid the confusion of a subway system that's chaotic even when it's running normally. With the mayor reluctantly aboard to pay the ransom, Garber must keep the hijackers from carrying out their threat while the money is transported, and keep the hotheads around him and on the police force under control -- and figure out how they intend to get away with a million dollars from inside a subway tunnel with police on all sides. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The third (and last) of author Norman Mailer's experiments in cinéma vérité filmmaking created between 1968 and 1970, Maidstone stars Mailer as Norman T. Kingsley, a celebrated filmmaker who is often described as "the American Buñuel." Kingsley and a large retinue of friends, actors, and colleagues have descended on his estate in Upstate New York to work on his latest project, a sexually provocative drama. At the same time, Kingsley is planning to launch a campaign for president, and he's visited by a large number of guests eager to discuss his political perspectives, including journalists, academics, and a handful of African-American radicals. Also on hand is Kingsley's ever-present posse of hangers-on nicknamed "the cash box," led by his half-brother Raoul (Rip Torn). As a British television reporter records the proceedings for an upcoming profile, a shadowy group of American intelligence agents questions if the nation might be better off without the possibility of a Kingsley candidacy. In the film's final reels, Mailer and his cast and crew drop their collective improvisation and discuss their work so far before the camera, but Torn takes it upon himself to give the film the ending he feels it needs by attacking Mailer with a hammer. Fascinating if only for its remarkable portrait of Mailer's legendary ego in full flight, Maidstone would be the writer's last stab at filmmaking until he was hired to direct a film adaptation of his novel Tough Guys Don't Dance in 1987. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide