'Working class hero' movies

[Chasseur]

Flo didn't write anything in this thread yet. But yes, good recommendations indeed.
"L'Atalante" goes with the french poetic realism thing.

For germany you already wrote a thread about Große Freiheit Nr. 7.

Then we have "Kuhle Wampe oder: Wem gehört die Welt?" from 1932. Lot's of great workwear and a very critical message. Very left leaning and one of the first movies that got banned during the third reich. In the same vain there seems to be a movie called "Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück" but I didn't see it yet.

"Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Großstadt" and "Menschen am Sonntag" are a good portrayal of the german working class too. They are not really movies about "heros" but semi-documentaries.

Edited with links

Ha! It was actually HBK not you oops... I guess we normally talk so much about those films I had thought it was you. Well I guess you, HBK and I have very similar tastes in film!

 

[Metatron]

Millions like us

I watched Millions like us

Here is a little review:

The film concerns girls from various backgrounds joining to work in a British bomber factory during world war two. It is a propaganda film, however as far as propaganda goes this is very subtle, and perhaps more ultimately successful because of this. The delivery is quite naturalistic and the actors all give convincing and understated performances. Various aspects of the home front are represented, the lonely father in the home guard, his daughter working in the factory, the relationships between factory workers and airmen, the melding of different classes represented by an upper class girl, out of her comfort zone on the production line.

The message that is conveyed is that as bad as things get, people will pull themselves together, find comfort in their friends, smile, and sing a song. There is no attempt to downplay the tragedies, and this would have made the film all the more relatable when it was first shown. This honesty is a fitting tribute to the sacrifice of the men of bomber command, which had a horrendous casualty rate.

I am a self confessed film snob and difficult to please, but this is a stellar, five star film, not least because of the score, which masterfully employs Beethoven's 5th, in conjunction with stirring footage of formations of bombers flying to their targets in Germany. For this alone, I find that this is a very underrated film which deserves more recognition. Epic in the real sense of the word, and there's something about the contrast between the skinny, shy, freckled young crewman and the intimidating, majestic image of the planes in which he flew.

 

[AmateisGal]

Meet John Doe is one of my favorites. Love Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck together.

 

[tropicalbob]

"Marty" with Ernest Borgnine.

 

[herringbonekid]

i strongly recommend 'Coeur de Lilas' (1932) starring Jean Gabin to anyone who likes the French poetic realism films of the 30s, particularly those of Marcel Carne.
some of the scenes set in the Bals Musette are like Brassai photos come to life. the whole thing is on youtube but without English subtitles. the DVD is on French ebay.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were tons of Warner Bros. "social dramas" in the early thirties dealing with working class characters and situations -- unlike the smug middle-class orientation of MGM or the upper-class pretentions of Paramount, Warners was consistently the most working-class-oriented of the studios. One of the best is "Taxi!", a tight drama with James Cagney as a tough cab driver organizing independent cabbies into a union to oppose a ruthless corporate taxi combine. Another one that's popular nowadays for all the wrong reasons is "Baby Face," which has been adopted as a favorite picture of sexual-revolutionists, but is actually a film about class oppression. Barbara Stanwyck's character is a strong working-class woman who sets out to deliberately destroy the middle and upper-class men who have exploited her by bringing them down with the only weapon she has left. Another excellent picture is "Wild Boys of the Road," whick looks at the Depression from the teenage hobo's point of view.

Even Warner's musicals tended to have a working-class point of view. "Forty Second Street," "Gold Diggers of 1933," and "Footlight Parade," the three big Warner musical hits of 1933, all have a strong working-class orientation, focusing on the grit of show business rather than the glamour.

 

[vitanola]

"The Crowd"

The character of John Sims is, I think, the ultimate "Working Class Hero".


"Mr. Zero" in Elmer Rice's play "The Adding Machine" might also well qualify.

 

[Blackthorn]

How Green Was My Valley

 

[Blackthorn]

From the pics posted on the replies, I'd say that you can make a good guess that a "working class hero" will be wearing a flat cap. It seems to be an emblem of the blue collar way of life.

 

[esteban68]

I watched Millions like us

Here is a little review:

The film concerns girls from various backgrounds joining to work in a British bomber factory during world war two. It is a propaganda film, however as far as propaganda goes this is very subtle, and perhaps more ultimately successful because of this. The delivery is quite naturalistic and the actors all give convincing and understated performances. Various aspects of the home front are represented, the lonely father in the home guard, his daughter working in the factory, the relationships between factory workers and airmen, the melding of different classes represented by an upper class girl, out of her comfort zone on the production line.

The message that is conveyed is that as bad as things get, people will pull themselves together, find comfort in their friends, smile, and sing a song. There is no attempt to downplay the tragedies, and this would have made the film all the more relatable when it was first shown. This honesty is a fitting tribute to the sacrifice of the men of bomber command, which had a horrendous casualty rate.

I am a self confessed film snob and difficult to please, but this is a stellar, five star film, not least because of the score, which masterfully employs Beethoven's 5th, in conjunction with stirring footage of formations of bombers flying to their targets in Germany. For this alone, I find that this is a very underrated film which deserves more recognition. Epic in the real sense of the word, and there's something about the contrast between the skinny, shy, freckled young crewman and the intimidating, majestic image of the planes in which he flew.

I'd go with all that one of the best British films ever made IMHO!

 

[Fading Fast]

There were tons of Warner Bros. "social dramas" in the early thirties dealing with working class characters and situations -- unlike the smug middle-class orientation of MGM or the upper-class pretentions of Paramount, Warners was consistently the most working-class-oriented of the studios. One of the best is "Taxi!", a tight drama with James Cagney as a tough cab driver organizing independent cabbies into a union to oppose a ruthless corporate taxi combine. Another one that's popular nowadays for all the wrong reasons is "Baby Face," which has been adopted as a favorite picture of sexual-revolutionists, but is actually a film about class oppression. Barbara Stanwyck's character is a strong working-class woman who sets out to deliberately destroy the middle and upper-class men who have exploited her by bringing them down with the only weapon she has left. Another excellent picture is "Wild Boys of the Road," whick looks at the Depression from the teenage hobo's point of view.

Even Warner's musicals tended to have a working-class point of view. "Forty Second Street," "Gold Diggers of 1933," and "Footlight Parade," the three big Warner musical hits of 1933, all have a strong working-class orientation, focusing on the grit of show business rather than the glamour.

It's funny, I was thinking about "Baby Face" the other day (and couldn't quite remember the name - thank you) - it's Pre-code at its best - and how Barbara Stanwyck usually played strong women / stared in a lot of movies, but for some reason, she isn't usually mentioned in the same category as Lombard, Hepburn, Bergman, etc. For my money, she is as talented an actress as those women and has that same natural and comfortable acting style that Spencer Tracy did. Neither Stanwyck nor Tracy seem to be acting at all; they just seem to be being themselves. Even much later, on the cheesy but fun western TV show "The Big Valley," her talent as an actress shined above the rest of the cast. Despite the bad dialogue, she delivered the lines as if they were natural to her character.

And to tie this ever so tangentially to the thread's theme: "The Big Valley" was all about a wealthy family, but the stories mainly focused on some poor or working class person struggling against great odds or oppressive power to succeed (which the Barkley usually help to happen).