How many movies or books in the last, say, 20 years, feature blue collar workers

[jobycom]

in a positive role? I'm not talking about minor characters, or, as is often the trend, the blue collar father of some wildly successful white collar or celebrity character. Nor a teenager or young slacker sort working manual labor as a way of avoiding life. Nor a story that starts with someone fed up with his blue collar life in the beginning who spends the whole movie becoming a "success" in some other way. I'm talking about the main character, a positive character, as a laborer/blue collar worker, and not trying to escape his blue collar world.

Cops and firemen excluded, since their jobs are often the basis for action/adventure stories, though if the story isn't about their job, and the job is only incidental, I'll count that.

The main examples I can think of are tv shows, especially sitcoms. Roseanne, Everybody Loves Raymond (Main character is a writer, but brother is a cop). Probably others, I just almost never watch tv, so I don't know.

From the movies, all Americans seem to be engineers, architects, writers, doctors, stock brokers, or professors.

[Little Wing]

1. Gung Ho

Crap movie, but watching George Wendt charging down a factory assembly line in full stampede mode is worth the price.

[jobycom]

3. I thought of that one. Michael Keaton had a couple such roles, IIRC.

I remember him playing a cop in a movie that wasn't a police/action show. He was a cop in need of money and did something questionable to get it. Good role. I think it was called "One Good Cop," or something. I could IMDB it, but I'm lazy. :)

Gung Ho was a decent film, for a cheap comedy. Wasn't that Ron Howard?

[philosophie_en_rose]

2. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

One of the main characters is a mechanic - who is very proud to be a mechanic, thank you very much. :) He's also thought of as a wise and serious person - not as some Al Bundy-type.

[jobycom]

4. Never heard of it. Is that a book or movie? nt

[philosophie_en_rose]

5. A series of books.

Very laid back books set in Botswana.

[peekaloo]

6. All in the Family.

Yeah, Archie was a RW bigot but those around him challenged his views and often influenced him in a positive way.

Does that count?

p.s. I just realized that was 30+ years ago.

:blush:

[jobycom]

9. Wrong time frame, but good example. I think there were more shows

in the 60s and 70s than now. It just seems to me that America has become very elitist, even classist, in the last two decades. It's very noticable in commercials. I was watching a Capital One commercial the other day, where a family is trying to save money on a travel credits, so the father books a flight on a crop dusting plane. The pilot is an older guy with crooked teeth and a weathered face, eating a sandwich, and offers the sandwhich to the family, who is disgusted by the thought of eating after him. The whole commercial mocks the man, his appearance, and what he does, showing it as completely horrendous to the family traveling.

There are a lot of commercials like that, and I even catch that attitude around here, where people use terms like "mouth breather" and various "redneck" type terms as an insult. It's not just that our protaganists have gone from being blue collar folk to white collar folk, but now just being blue collar is often used as an insult by white collars. Capital One's market is suburban, middle class families--usually white collar. It's one thing to market to that group (which I pretty much fall into, myself), but I don't get the need to insult other groups of people to do it.

Politicians use it, too. The Republicans try to paint us as upper class snobs, unconcerned with common people, while at the same time trying to paint us as lazy welfare people. Republicans play both sides against each other, and people don't seem to pick up on it. But there are a lot of Democrats who attack anything Southern or blue collar, or both. Remember when Howard Dean said he wanted to be the party of everyone, including Confederate flag waving pickup truck drivers. Many here at DU wanted to crucify Dean--even his supporters (It had the opposite effect on me, making me like him when I hadn't before).

Maybe it's always been like that, and I'm just noticing it more, but when I think back on the tv shows I watched as a kid, the families were just as often blue collar. Sanford and Son, Barney Miller, Happy Days, Welcome Back Kotter... There were white collar shows, too--Brady Bunch, Partridge Family (sort of), The Cosby Show. Everything seems more elitist now.

[Momgonepostal]

7. 1632 by Eric Flint

It's a time travel novel set in rural West Virginia. Most of the characters are miners or other blue collar workers.

But you're right, there are very few. I read quite a lot, and have noticed that almost all contemporary fiction has main characters who are either professionals, successful artists or writers, have family money, or some sort of combination of the above. In the case of detective-type novels, the main character is of course in law enforcement, so that fits, but the victims and suspects are often disproportionately of higher income levels.

[AngryAmish]

8. Tremors

[slj0101]

10. Office Space.

Lawrence, played by Deidrich Bader, was Peter Gibbons' (Ron Livingston) next-door neighbor, and the voice of reason in the film. In the end, Peter ends up working as a laborer, and enjoys it better than working as a software engineer.

[Burma Jones]

11. Field of Dreams

Farmers count, right?

[jobycom]

20. Yes, they do! Good pick! nt

[Left Is Write]

12. Norma Rae (it's not from the last 20 years, but it's the first one I thought of)

[idgiehkt]

13. sorry for this, but "Flashdance"

It was the first one that came to mind.
Even though she was trying to escape so I guess that doesn't count.

[Left Is Write]

16. I thought of Fame for the same reason and rejected it for the same reason!

I thought of Married With Children but then rejected it because the Bundys are portrayed as buffoons, which isn't exactly positive and favorable.

[pitohui]

14. i think "king of queens" is a ups driver, aren't they teamsters?

not sure if i am thinking of the right show

don't see many movies so i dunno

a lot of movies are about escape and action/adventure so when you remove the entire category of action/adventure i'm not sure you're being entirely fair, if the story can't entail the person's job (cop solving a crime) then the job must leave the person enough free time to investigate and get involved in the adventure (so some such job as professor where the public perception is they spent all their time on sabbatical and calling in sick anyway)

the doctor shows are just as much where the job is being used to get into the action/adventure -- all those novels about brave doctors fighting the plague or solving some medical mystery or what have you -- if you told the story from point of view of a hospital orderly then he wouldn't have access to tools needed to solve the crime or cure the disease

some of this is just the nature of fiction, there has to be something serious at stake (usually life and death) to create the conflict

[Left Is Write]

15. How about Cheers?

[taterguy]

17. Junebug

It was an ensemble piece so there was no true main character. However, Johnny was at his happiest when he was working in the factory.

If you haven't seen it you should.

[GenDem]

18. "Grace Under Fire" was a sitcom in 90's

It starred stand up comedian, Brett Butler. She worked in a steel mill or some kind of factory that was a male dominated job. She was raising three kids, and her ex was an abusive alcoholic. I thought it was a good show. The character, Grace, was a very strong and confident woman.

[jobycom]

22. Yeah, I loved that show. A more mature precursor to Reba.

Though Reba's husband is a dentist, and she is basically a housewife. Funny how female characters can have nondescript careers, but male characters can't without it being a central issue.

[GenDem]

19. " As Good as it Gets" -- Helen Hunt

She played the hard working waitress, and her role was very positive.

[jobycom]

21. True. But the male lead was a successful writer. And female leads often

have lower status socially than the male lead, especially in romances.

That was a great character, and great performance. Good script, too.

[Momgonepostal]

23. Stephen King has used a lot of "regular guys" as main

characters over the years, and often portrays the wealthy in a negative light.

[bigwillq]

24. I was going to say Roseanne

but it took a few times for my drunk ass to realize you already said it.

:P