THE WORKING MAN, CHARLIE!
by Rodrigo_Amaro | created - 14 Jun 2019 | updated - 4 months ago | Public"Now I can afford to make some promises. The working man, the working man and the slum child know they can expect my best efforts in their interests. The nation's ordinary citizens know that I'll do everything in my power to protect the underprivileged, the underpaid, and the underfed." Charles Foster Kane makes a political campaign pledge but his best friend knows that in Kane's newspapers he doesn't follow those principals hence this list title as spoken by Jed Leland. As someone in the life's trenches, this is a comprehensive list about the working class, men, women and children who try to earn a living in the most extreme circumstances and situations. Feel free to present me more titles.
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1. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Passed | 129 min | Drama
An Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin
Votes: 99,999 | Gross: $0.06M
2. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office.
Director: James Foley | Stars: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin
Votes: 116,296 | Gross: $10.73M
3. El Norte (1983)
R | 141 min | Adventure, Drama
After their family is killed in a government massacre, siblings Enrique and Rosa flee Guatemala and embark on a perilous journey to "El Norte": the United States.
Director: Gregory Nava | Stars: Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, David Villalpando, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Alicia del Lago
Votes: 5,597
4. Modern Times (1936)
G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Tiny Sandford
Votes: 259,596 | Gross: $0.16M
5. They Don't Wear Black Tie (1981)
120 min | Drama
Union leader's son doesn't want to engage in a strike, because his wife is pregnant, thus disregarding his father's tradition of political activism.
Director: Leon Hirszman | Stars: Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, Fernanda Montenegro, Carlos Alberto Riccelli, Bete Mendes
Votes: 1,823
6. Silkwood (1983)
R | 131 min | Biography, Drama, History
A worker at a plutonium processing plant is purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing worker safety violations at the plant.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, Craig T. Nelson
Votes: 22,212 | Gross: $35.62M
7. Norma Rae (1979)
PG | 114 min | Drama
A young single mother and textile worker agrees to help unionize her mill despite the problems and dangers involved.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, Pat Hingle
Votes: 12,843 | Gross: $22.23M
8. ABC da Greve (1990)
75 min | Documentary
A detailed look at the events that led to the continuous strikes that shut down many factories during the still repressive days of the military regime. The workers union, led by syndicalist... See full summary »
Director: Leon Hirszman | Stars: Lélia Abramo, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vinicius de Moraes, Ferreira Gullar
Votes: 208
9. The China Syndrome (1979)
PG | 122 min | Drama, Thriller
A reporter finds what appears to be a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant.
Director: James Bridges | Stars: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady
Votes: 33,051 | Gross: $51.72M
10. The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971)
125 min | Drama
A conscientious factory worker becomes embroiled in political activism after accidentally cutting off his finger while working a machine.
Director: Elio Petri | Stars: Gian Maria Volontè, Mariangela Melato, Gino Pernice, Luigi Diberti
Votes: 4,067
11. Salt of the Earth (1954)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, History
Mexican workers at a zinc mine call a general strike. It is only through the solidarity of the workers, and importantly the indomitable resolve of their wives, mothers, and daughters, that they eventually triumph.
Director: Herbert J. Biberman | Stars: Juan Chacón, Rosaura Revueltas, Will Geer, David Bauer
Votes: 4,045
12. Matewan (1987)
PG-13 | 135 min | Drama, History
A labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Will Oldham
Votes: 8,917 | Gross: $1.68M
13. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
PG | 103 min | Documentary
A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
Director: Barbara Kopple | Stars: John L. Lewis, Carl Horn, Norman Yarborough, Logan Patterson
Votes: 6,635
14. North Country (2005)
R | 126 min | Drama
A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States, Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.
Director: Niki Caro | Stars: Charlize Theron, Jeremy Renner, Frances McDormand, Thomas Curtis
Votes: 44,942 | Gross: $18.32M
15. I, Daniel Blake (2016)
R | 100 min | Drama
After surviving a heart-attack, a 59-year-old carpenter must fight bureaucratic forces to receive Employment and Support Allowance.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Sharon Percy, Briana Shann
Votes: 64,803 | Gross: $0.26M
16. Bread and Roses (2000)
R | 110 min | Drama
Two Latina sisters work as cleaners in a downtown office building, and fight for the right to unionize.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Pilar Padilla, Adrien Brody, Elpidia Carrillo, Jack McGee
Votes: 6,073 | Gross: $0.53M
17. The Burning Season: The Chico Mendes Story (1994 TV Movie)
R | 123 min | Biography, Drama
Based on the true story of a Brazilian rubber tapper who leads his people in protest against government and developers who want to cut down their part of the rainforest for a new road and ... See full summary »
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Raul Julia, Carmen Argenziano, Sonia Braga, Kamala Lopez
Votes: 755
18. Pride (I) (2014)
R | 119 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
U.K. gay activists work to help miners during their lengthy strike of the National Union of Mineworkers in the summer of 1984.
Director: Matthew Warchus | Stars: Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine
Votes: 61,659
19. Bound for Glory (1976)
PG | 147 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The early life of Woody Guthrie as a vagabond folk singer.
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland
Votes: 5,592
20. Blue Collar (1978)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama
When three automotive factory workers who're struggling financially try to steal from their own labor union, they discover corruption, and reluctantly decide to use this information for blackmail.
Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, Ed Begley Jr.
Votes: 10,651
21. Roger & Me (1989)
R | 91 min | Documentary
After General Motors closes its factory in Flint, Michigan, eliminating 35,000 jobs, filmmaker Michael Moore undertakes a quixotic quest to interview General Motors' chairman, Roger B. Smith.
Director: Michael Moore | Stars: Michael Moore, Roger B. Smith, Rhonda Britton, Fred Ross
Votes: 27,516 | Gross: $6.71M
22. Radiohead: All I Need (2008 Music Video)
4 min | Short, Music
It is filmed in split screen and depicts one day in the contrasting lives of two children from opposite sides of the world: a young boy in the West from an affluent, developed area, and ... See full summary »
Director: Steve Rogers
Votes: 29
23. A Queda (1978)
120 min | Drama
This sequel to "Os Fuzis" follows the story of a hard working operator who dies on a work related accident due to the precarious conditions established in the place. But when his superiors ... See full summary »
Directors: Ruy Guerra, Nelson Xavier | Stars: Nelson Xavier, Leonidas Bayer, Carlos Alberto Baía, Hugo Carvana
Votes: 147
24. The Guns (1964)
80 min | Drama
In an extremely poor region in the Northeast of Brazil, a group of soldiers try to stop the population from sacking a food deposit.
Director: Ruy Guerra | Stars: Átila Iório, Nelson Xavier, Maria Gladys, Leonidas Bayer
Votes: 738
25. Beijo 2348/72 (1990)
100 min | Drama
Factory workers get fired for kissing during work hours.
Director: Walter Rogério | Stars: Chiquinho Brandão, Maitê Proença, Fernanda Torres, Antônio Fagundes
Votes: 118
26. American Dream (1990)
PG-13 | 98 min | Documentary
Recounts the 1985-86 strike against the Hormel Foods Corporation in Minnesota after its employees' wages and benefits were cut.
Directors: Barbara Kopple, Cathy Caplan, Thomas Haneke, Lawrence Silk | Stars: Lewie Anderson, R.J. Bergstrom, Ron Bergstrom, Wayne Goodnature
Votes: 1,012 | Gross: $0.27M
27. Strike (1925)
Not Rated | 82 min | Drama
A group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh, Mikhail Gomorov, I. Ivanov
Votes: 8,631
28. Laukaus tehtaalla (1973)
79 min | Drama
The events surrounding a factory in a small town are gone through in documentary style.
Director: Erkko Kivikoski | Stars: Urpo Poikolainen, Aarne Hakulinen, Pentti Viljakainen, Artturi Haikonen
Votes: 154
29. Pelle the Conqueror (1987)
PG-13 | 157 min | Drama
When his wife dies, Lasse takes his 12-year-old son, Pelle, from their home in Sweden to Denmark in search of a better life.
Director: Bille August | Stars: Pelle Hvenegaard, Max von Sydow, Erik Paaske, Björn Granath
Votes: 11,868 | Gross: $2.05M
30. On the Waterfront (1954)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
Votes: 165,001 | Gross: $9.60M
31. F.I.S.T. (1978)
PG | 145 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A rebellious Cleveland warehouse worker rises through the ranks of a trucking industry union to become union president but his organized crime links cause his eventual downfall.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Rod Steiger, Peter Boyle, Melinda Dillon
Votes: 8,747 | Gross: $20.39M
32. Hoffa (1992)
R | 140 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The story of the notorious American labor union figure Jimmy Hoffa, who organizes a bitter strike, makes deals with members of the organized crime syndicate and mysteriously disappears in 1975.
Director: Danny DeVito | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Armand Assante, J.T. Walsh
Votes: 24,801 | Gross: $24.28M
33. Man of Iron (1981)
PG | 156 min | Drama, History
A few years after the events of Man of Marble (1977), a journalist investigates Mateusz Birkut's son Maciek Tomczyk, now an activist leading a shipyard strike.
Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, Marian Opania, Wieslawa Kosmalska
Votes: 3,796
34. Man of Marble (1977)
160 min | Drama
A young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.
Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Jacek Lomnicki
Votes: 4,779
35. A Perfect Day (I) (2015)
R | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, War
A group of aid workers work to resolve a crisis in an armed conflict zone.
Director: Fernando León de Aranoa | Stars: Benicio Del Toro, Tim Robbins, Olga Kurylenko, Mélanie Thierry
Votes: 23,540
36. Metropolis (1927)
Not Rated | 153 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Votes: 185,608 | Gross: $1.24M
37. La Terra Trema (1948)
Not Rated | 160 min | Drama
In rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Luchino Visconti, Antonio Pietrangeli, Antonio Arcidiacono, Giuseppe Arcidiacono
Votes: 5,597
38. Sorry We Missed You (2019)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
Hoping that self-employment through gig economy can solve their financial woes, a hard-up UK delivery driver and his wife struggling to raise a family end up trapped in the vicious circle of this modern-day form of labour exploitation.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Mcgowan, Katie Proctor
Votes: 25,857
39. The Measure of a Man (2015)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama
At the age of 51 and after 20 months on unemployment, Thierry starts a new job that soon brings him face to face with a moral dilemma. How much is he willing to accept to keep his job?
Director: Stéphane Brizé | Stars: Vincent Lindon, Karine de Mirbeck, Matthieu Schaller, Yves Ory
Votes: 6,788 | Gross: $0.11M
40. Germinal (1993)
R | 160 min | Drama, Romance
In mid-nineteenth-century northern France, a coal mining town's workers are exploited by the mine's owner. One day, they decide to go on strike, and the authorities repress them.
Director: Claude Berri | Stars: Renaud, Gérard Depardieu, Miou-Miou, Jean Carmet
Votes: 5,748 | Gross: $0.38M
41. Volta Redonda, o Memorial da Greve (1989)
39 min | Documentary, Short
A short documentary that chronicles the events of the strike that took place at the metallurgic Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) in November 1988, which claimed the lives of three ... See full summary »
Directors: Eduardo Coutinho, Sérgio Goldenberg | Stars: Francisco Milani, Luis Albano, Juarez Antunes, José Emidio Barcelos
42. Adalen 31 (1969)
X | 115 min | Drama, History, Romance
During a strike strike-breakers are being transported to Lunde, where they are assaulted by the strikers. The military are sent in. On the 14th May 1931 there is a confrontation between ... See full summary »
Director: Bo Widerberg | Stars: Peter Schildt, Kerstin Tidelius, Roland Hedlund, Stefan Feierbach
Votes: 1,748
43. Braços Cruzados, Máquinas Paradas (1979)
76 min | Documentary
São Paulo, 1978. Three slates vie for leadership of the Metalworkers' Union of São Paulo, the largest in Latin America, with 300,000 members, and chaired by a "pelego" (aligned with the ... See full summary »
Directors: Roberto Gervitz, Sergio Toledo | Star: Othon Bastos
Votes: 36
44. Linha de Montagem (1982)
90 min | Documentary
Documentary about the strikes taking place in São Bernardo do Campo, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, circa 1979/1980. That moment was of utmost importance, since it revealed a Union ... See full summary »
Director: Renato Tapajós | Stars: Vagner Lino Alves, Othon Bastos, Expedito Soares Batista, Djalma de Souza Bom
Votes: 52
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