Tuesday Tally

Movies about the White Working Class

This is the forgotten demo, these are the Trump voters. Here are a few timely and timeless movies about young, white working class men.

The Outsiders: We watched this recently for the first time in decades. It was a big deal in 1983, and we think may well have begun the 50's nostalgia we endured in our youth. Basically you got a bunch of no-future white kids in small town Oklahoma. Patrick Swazye is the adult of the group, working a construction job, but even he joins the brawl against the Socs at the end. The Socs, that is the Socials, these are the preps and jocks with nice cars and cheerleader girlfriends. The Socs are seemingly the enemy of Patrick Swayze and his greaser pals. But the real enemy is time and place. Two greasers (Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise if you can believe it) are working at a gas station. Emilio Esteves is a lay about clown. We're meant to sympathize with Swayze's little brother Pony Boy and his buddy Johnny Cade played by Ralph Machio. Johnny Cade with an abusive father is doomed even before he knifes a Soc. The girls are just going to love Pony Boy, especially after he dyes his hair blond. Then there's Dallas, played expertly by Matt Dillon. He's a dropout and criminal, destined to head back to the klink if he isn't killed first. The feel of the film is perfect post-war Midwest. Well done Mr. Coppola.

Breaking Away: More Midwest, this time in Bloomington, Indiana a university town. Once more the successful kids (at IU) are seemingly the enemy and once more the enemy is really time and circumstance. It's September and four childhood friends have graduated HS and don't know what to do with themselves. There's a sliding scale of hopelessness here, Dennis Christopher likes biking and all things Italian. He'd like to do something else with his life but is not sure what. Daniel Stern has a sense that there's more to life but being a towney but has no idea how to find it. Dennis Quaid was the HS QB and now he's nobody. He realizes at 19 the best years of his life are past him. Jackie Earl Haley, and it wouldn't be a 70's film without him, doesn't know of a wider world and doesn't care anyway. He gets hitched at the end of the film. This movie is about place, and aspiration. The movie is it's title. Dated? Sure. Timeless? Yes.

Saturday Night Fever: Boy has this film ever evolved. It perfectly invoked the 70's down to the clothes and music and was completely out of place in the 1980's. We would have beaten the crap out of someone for listening to the Bee Gees in 1988. John Travolta is another working class kid, just out of HS with a job at a paint store. He loves to dance but is constrained by his environment. His father is out of work, his mother is heartbroken that his brother has left the priesthood. Grandma lives with them and only speaks Italian. He's got the same bunch of no future friends, with the dumbest having knocked up his girlfriend. Modern viewers will be aghast at the ethnic chauvinism and misogyny. This is really a rough movie abut New York in the 70's and nearly as dark as Taxi Driver.