"Actor: Richard Prior"

• Blue Collar (Blu-Ray) | Blu Ray | (22/01/2018) from £16.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Paul Schrader had established his reputation as a screenwriter (The Yakuza and Taxi Driver, among others) before embarking on his directorial debut. Blue Collar is the story of three working-class guys at the Checker auto plant who run their local union office. Richard Pryor delivers a funny, passionate, seething performance in one of his rare dramatic roles as a rabble-rousing union man. Trapped by family worries and crippling back taxes, he dreams up the robbery after scoping out the joint and enlists his coworker and buddies, family man Harvey Keitel and high-living bachelor Yaphet Kotto, who are in similar financial straits. This is a strictly amateur-hour heist, and their successful getaway is the last bit of good luck in store for the trio. The robbery turns up no cash, only incriminating files, and the inept thieves are soon blackmailing the powerful union, which fights back with force, seduction, and murder. Schrader's first film has little of the polish or style he developed by American Gigolo, but his portrait of lower middle class families in 1970s Detroit, interracial relations, and male camaraderie is sharp and insightful. His attention to detail shows in every frame and adds to the edgy material, which balances the thriller plot with social commentary about corruption, labour relations, and the lure of power. Schrader's later films show more subtlety and cinematic confidence, but time hasn't dimmed the power he unleashes in this angry working class drama.--Sean Axmaker

• The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars And Motor Kings | DVD | (08/06/2009) from £5.38   |  Saving you £7.61 (141.45%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In the world of 1930s Negro League baseball a spirited team of renegade players travels around the Midwest looking for that one big score. Richard Pryor Billy Dee Williams and James Earl Jones star as three barnstorming ballplayers who take on prejudice and their own League's unfair rules while stealing cars food and home base - anything to prove that they're the best team around. It's a showdown of brains over booby traps and sportsmanship over racial segregation as Bingo Long's All-Stars swing their way to a winning season.

• Black Brigade | DVD | (01/01/2020) from £9.43   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A