Death of Blue-Collar Leading Roles?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by MortSahlFan, Apr 18, 2019.

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  1. MortSahlFan

    MortSahlFan Forum Resident Thread Starter

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    US
    I'm reading Steve McQueen's biography, and the author mentioned how most of the heroes were working-class... Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Cagney, John Wayne, Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen himself and others...

    I can't think of any in my lifetime (almost 40 years)..
     
  2. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Michael Keaton.
     
  3. Khaki F

    Khaki F Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kenosha, WI. USA
    I've always liked Dutch (1991). It wasn't particularly successful in the box office, and the critics weren't too crazy about it either, but that hasn't changed my affection for it. A wonderful film to watch around Thanksgiving, especially.
     
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  4. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Those kinds of jobs are more scarce today than they were 40+ years ago so the movies reflect that in society.
     
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  5. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    A highly under-rated movie! Ed O'Neil and the young actor who plays the boy he has to look after are both very funny in it. :righton:
     
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  6. rockerreds

    rockerreds Senior Member

    Bogart wasn't working class.
     
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  7. Jerrika

    Jerrika Mysterious Ways

    Location:
    Canada
    Maybe it's because of the evolution of the human race. People are more educated than they used to be and hence not as interested in blue collar characters. The college degree is the new high school diploma, meaning that most people have one.
     
  8. Drew

    Drew Senior Member

    Location:
    Grand Junction, CO
    I always felt Bruce Willis came across as a working class guy. But it's been a long, long time since he was in anything that I considered to be a good movie.
     
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  9. The Wanderer

    The Wanderer Seeker of Truth

    Location:
    NYC
    Morgan Freeman
     
  10. socorro

    socorro Forum Resident

    Location:
    pennsylvania
    You might be using a narrow conception of working class. Moonlight is very much a working class movie and it won the best picture Oscar last year.

    Others that come to mind, all from well within OP's 40 year window:

    Do The Right Thing
    Mystic River
    Dirty Pretty Things
    Moonstruck
    Winter's Bone
    The Hunger Games
    Clerks
    Manchester By The Sea
    In America
    Billy Elliot
    Gran Torino
    Trainspotting
    Barbershop

    If you mean movies about a wisecracking white tough guy who is an assembly line worker, then yeah, there are fewer movies about them because that describes fewer people than it used to.

    If you mean a wisecracking white tough guy who is a cop/soldier/firefighter, then you should be set for the next few decades.
     
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  11. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

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    Marple, PA, USA
    Mystic River:righton:
     
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  12. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
    Not naming any names but the general thought is that most main actors in the UK are from the public/private school system, I'm sure you can name others that don't fit, but.
    The decimation, and cuts in the regular schools has denied many kids with real talent a place.
     
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  13. Culpa

    Culpa Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    I thought the OP was about the actors, not the films or characters??
     
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  14. Kristofa

    Kristofa Enthusiast of small convenient sound carrier units

    Location:
    usa
    Robert Duvall comes to mind.
     
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  15. MortSahlFan

    MortSahlFan Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
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    I wasn't able to EDIT, and wanted to mention that I was referring to the on-screen persona, and not their personal upbringing. (I know Bogart's father was a doctor)

    Yes, thank you.
     
  16. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Frances McDormand
    Octavia Spencer
    Michael Shannon
    Sam Rockwell
     
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  17. Vahan

    Vahan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glendale, CA, USA
    Sylvester Stallone in Over the Top.
     
  18. Spaghettiows

    Spaghettiows Forum Resident

    Location:
    Silver Creek, NY
    That kind of dismissiveness of working class persons is one of the main reasons that the U.S. has found itself in the pickle we have been in for the last couple of years. People with no college degree are still in the majority and the tendency of the "educated" to disregard them as cretins and luddites can lead to adverse results.
     
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  19. MortSahlFan

    MortSahlFan Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    True - there are many different kinds of "education"
     
  20. socorro

    socorro Forum Resident

    Location:
    pennsylvania
    OP mentioned how "most of the heroes were working class" -- I assumed this referred to the characters (who sometimes are written and played as heroic) rather than the actors (odd to refer to them as heroes themselves unless they saved a child in real life, took a courageous stance with HUAC, defied an unjust taboo, etc).
     
  21. socorro

    socorro Forum Resident

    Location:
    pennsylvania
    I'm missing the distinction between a character in a film, and an on-screen persona.
     
  22. MortSahlFan

    MortSahlFan Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    I mentioned upbringing in that post of mine you quoted, meaning I wasn't interested in their childhood status.
     
  23. socorro

    socorro Forum Resident

    Location:
    pennsylvania
    OK -- it's still not clear, but I have a pretty high tolerance for ambiguity.
     
  24. MortSahlFan

    MortSahlFan Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    I think you're confused because you quoted something I said, and then said you mentioned something I didn't say.
     
  25. townsend

    townsend Senior Member

    Location:
    Ridgway, CO
    To this list of working class heroes, add Charles Bronson. Some info on his early life (from wikipedia):

    "Bronson was born Charles Dennis Buchinsky, the 11th of 15 children, in a Roman Catholic family of Lithuanian descent in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, in the coal region of the Allegheny Mountains north of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
    Bronson learned to speak English when he was a teenager; before that, he spoke Lithuanian and Russian.
    Bronson was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. When Bronson was 10 years old, his father died and he went to work in the coal mines, first in the mining office and then in the mine.
    He worked in the mine until he entered military service during World War II.[2] His family was so poor that, at one time, he had to wear his sister's dress to school for lack of clothing."

    If that ain't humble working class poor beginnings, I don't know what is.
     
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