Blue Collar (1978)

Richard Pryor: Zeke

Photos 

Quotes 

• Clarence Hill, Union Steward : Y'know I can't go to the Green Room with every little thing. I gotta wait for somethin' big, or a buncha little things. Now we can't let our power be dissipated by the, by the plant. . .

  Zeke Brown : Plant my ass, man! That's all you talk about, "the plant"! Everybody know what "the plant" is. "The plant" just short for plantation!

• Zeke Brown : I take home two-ten a week man, goddamn. I gotta pay for the lights, gas, clothes, food... every fuckin' thing, man. I'm left with about thirty bucks after all the fuckin' bills are paid. Gimme a break, will ya mister?

  Mr. Bird, I.R.S. Man : Mister Brown, there's nothing I can do. I work for Uncle Sam . . .

  Zeke Brown : Fuck Uncle Sam, man! They give the fuckin' politicians a break! Agnew and 'em don't pay shit! Working man's gotta pay every goddamn thing!

  Mr. Bird, I.R.S. Man : You shouldn't say that about Uncle Sam . . .

  Zeke Brown : Don't point at me, you muthafucka! Get out my house! I'll pay the goddamn money!

  Mr. Bird, I.R.S. Man : [heads for the door]  You bet you will, you'll pay it.

  Zeke Brown : Yeah I know I'll pay it! If I had the Navy and Marines behind me, I'd be a muthafucka too!

• Zeke Brown : [while watching "The Jeffersons"]  Now that shit is pitiful. I dunno how in the fuck a nigga like that gets some money anyway. This is the dumbest shit - look at this muthafucka. Look like a muthafuckin' ostrich. Look at that shit . . .

  Caroline Brown : If you hate it so much, why dontcha just turn it off?

  Zeke Brown : Turn it off? Are you kiddin' baby? Took me three years to pay for that muthafucka. We gon' watch everything they show on it. All the shit they show. Even the snow when the muthafucka go off, I'm gonna sit here and watch that.

• Zeke Brown : [after outlining their plan for blackmailing the union]  Smoke, what if the motherfuckas don't wanna pay?

  Smokey James : If they don't pay, then we're gonna cut'em a new asshole.

• Clarence Hill, Union Steward : [in the green room, after Zeke's confrontation with Dogshit Miller]  It sounds like a simple misunderstanding to me. Now... Zeke'll buy Miller a bottle of Cutty, and we'll forget the whole thing.

  Zeke Brown : ZEKE AIN'T BUYIN NOBODY A GODDAMN THING! And you ain't shit for a steward, Hill!

  Clarence Hill, Union Steward : Maybe you don't belong in this union!

  Zeke Brown : Maybe you're right!

• Zeke Brown : [just before the union break-in]  Maybe we should've robbed a liquor store like everybody else.

• Zeke Brown : Reasonable, Man, flick my Bic!

• Zeke Brown : And when I take over your muthafuckin' job, know what I'm gonna do baby? Gonna get on my private jet and wing up to Palm Springs. Hang out with Eddie Knuckles, and hit a few golfballs with President Ford and Nixon and them muthafuckas.

• Zeke Brown : [SPOILER - final scene]  Hey, scumbag. You know, I'd hate to be livin' in them pretty little white shoes.

  Jerry Bartowski : I see they finally fixed your locker, Zeke.

  [Burrows tries to intervene but Bartowski holds up his hand] 

  Jerry Bartowski : No, it-it's all right. Lemme, lemme, lemme, lemme talk to the new steward.

  Zeke Brown : Yeah, let him talk to me. Tell me about how you like the workin' man.

  [points at him angrily] 

  Zeke Brown : You don't care about nothin' but your own dumb Polack ass.

  Jerry Bartowski : [venemously]  Hey, blood, you double-crossed me, tried to get me killed. Didn't ya'?

  Zeke Brown : I ain't your blood, motherfucker! You do anything to stay out of jail! Even sell out on your friends!

  Jerry Bartowski : I ain't the one that sold out, nigger-shit, YOU are!

  Zeke Brown : Yeah, ya' jive honky? You ain't lookin' out for nobody but number one and that's you, ain't it? You jive white boy!

  Jerry Bartowski : You ain't nothing now, you fucking nigger!

  Zeke Brown : [referring to the two federal agents with Bartowski]  I hope your mother and father gon' protect your ass, 'cause you're gonna have to HIDE!

  Jerry Bartowski : FUCKING NIGGER!

  Zeke Brown : MOTHERFUCKER!

  Zeke Brown , Jerry Bartowski : [Brown and Bartowski grab weapons and charge at each other, the other workers struggling to get in between them and just as chaos is erupting and the two former best friends are about to clash with harmful intent, the frame freezes and in the background echoes an earlier quote from Smokey James] 

  Smokey James : They pit the lifers against the new boy; the young against the old; the black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place.

  [the screen then fades to red and the end credits roll]