Blue-collar / working-class Sci-fi flicks: List them here

Plus in a Galaxy where the aristos speak like Luke/Leia who's to say Threepio's accent isn't a signifier of servitude?

Well, it's quite obvious that all the droids are built for servitude. But within the internal classification of the droids, C3PO most certainly is white collar and not blue collar.

Come to think of it, in what way are robots worse off under the Empire? They're like slaves being conned to defend their own slavedom by the patrician Rebels who will then turn round and say "cheers for that guys, now stfu and get my dinner ready"

you don't really find out all that shit though until the second and third movies. in the first one luke is just a moisture farmer done good!

fyi next three Star Wars movies are about C3P0 and R2 killin all humans

3pio is clearly a class-climbing whore like madonna -- racist against wookies, too.

are cops blue collar? because there's a whole set of -cops things: timecop, space cops, robocop

actually, it's a lot harder to think of SF movies without a blue collar hero!

man NV is doing some real hardcore nietzschean reversing of the magnetic poles right now

You can't have a white collar/blue collar distinction in slavery, just cos as far as we know the Threepio units don't get their hands dirty doesn't mean they aren't pawns of The Man just as much as their spaceship-fixing bros

Plus remember that C3PO wasn't just a regular ol' protocol droid, he was a protocol droid working for a genuine princess!

I've never watched these movies properly, is there much evidence of the bits of the galaxy that aren't Rebel scum being mismanaged or oppressed by the Empire? Whole series is some kind of counter-revolutionary bullshit imo

You can't have a white collar/blue collar distinction in slavery,

Oh, I'm pretty sure during Medieval times those servants who worked for the Queen/King thought of themselves being much higher in the hierarchy than servants working for some small-time Lord.

is there much evidence of the bits of the galaxy that aren't Rebel scum being mismanaged or oppressed by the Empire

they killed a bunch of teddy bears iirc

xpost

Feudal system was v. different from slavery, sunshine

Star Wars clearly shows that Threepio had been abused by his "owner" and denied his basic rights to a hot oil bath for example

I've never watched these movies properly, is there much evidence of the bits of the galaxy that aren't Rebel scum being mismanaged or oppressed by the Empire?

They did blow up that one planet, but other than that, the original trilogy doesn't really show any of the Empire's supposed oppression.

one planet was home to the rebel princess tho

my favorite fanboy argument about star wars is the claim that by blowing up both death stars, the rebels are just as guilty as the empire is of committing mass murderer, since think of all the janitors/maintenance workers/blue collar dudes who are working on the death star keeping it running & functioning, they probably had no ill will towards anybody and were just conscripted by the empire, won't somebody think of the children!!

3po would have sold his droid bros out -- total class traitor -- did you see how quickly he maneuvered himself into exploiting ewok religion to make himself queen of the ewoks? don't weep for 3po.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw

Feudal system was v. different from slavery, sunshine

The only evidence for a supposed slavery of droids is the scene in the A New Hope where they're selling the droids on the market, but maybe Luke just lives on a backwater planet that hasn't yet abolished droid slavery. Nothing in the movies suggests Leia thought the droids were her slaves.

my favorite fanboy argument about star wars is the claim that by blowing up both death stars, the rebels are just as guilty as the empire is of committing mass murderer, since think of all the janitors/maintenance workers/blue collar dudes who are working on the death star keeping it running & functioning, they probably had no ill will towards anybody and were just conscripted by the empire, won't somebody think of the children!!

^isn't this from Clerks?

xpost

She did solder a HAYYYYYULP message into his guts

have never watched clerks xp

since think of all the janitors/maintenance workers/blue collar dudes who are working on the death star keeping it running & functioning, they probably had no ill will towards anybody and were just conscripted by the empire

The prequels supposedly explain this away by revealing that they're all clones. Though why a sentient clone's life should be worth less than anyone else's, I have no idea.

She did solder a HAYYYYYULP message into his guts

So you think all those bike messengers on the streets are slaves?

they used boba fett clones to clean toilets? seems like a waste

xp

xpost

they have to swallow their messages?

oh wait, they probably had droids to clean toilets

xp

Now you're being antropomorphic. R2 didn't "swallow" anything, it was just its version of a messenger bag.

The prequels supposedly explain this away by revealing that they're all clones. Though why a sentient clone's life should be worth less than anyone else's, I have no idea.

not enough midichlorians

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/b/b9/Lobot_btm.jpg

This guy has the worst of it -- looks human, but named LOWbot.

I heard they almost got him to star in death of a salesman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zd_khk6zXo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFKhV_X6-cg

apparently George Lucas addressed the matter in the DVD commentary to one of the prequels.

Jay and Silent Bob are not in Clerks. Well, ok, except for kind-of.

I can understand the confusion there, certainly.

Isn't it Lobot? As in lobotomy?

You're right! Poor lobot! Why they gave you a lobotomy? Maybe you wanted too much freedom.

I heard they almost got him to star in death of a salesman

― real eyes realize real truffle fries (dyao), Friday, June 4, 2010 1:52 PM

more like Death Star of a Salesman

Yeah, but C3PO is a "protocol droid", i.e. built for a white collar job. Can you imagine him doing manual work?

"My last job was programming binary load-lifters, very similar to your vaporators!"

the original trilogy doesn't really show any of the Empire's supposed oppression.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/1/14/OwenBeru_dead.jpg

"My last job was programming binary load-lifters, very similar to your vaporators!"

c3po just bragging how l33t his coding skills are, but whenever they need to hack empire security, notice it's always R2 who steps up.

3po would have sold his droid bros out -- total class traitor -- did you see how quickly he maneuvered himself into exploiting ewok religion to make himself queen of the ewoks? don't weep for 3po.

― Philip Nunez, Friday, June 4, 2010 1:40 PM Bookmark

But 3PO initially demurs, claiming it would be against his programming to impersonate a deity. He gets browbeat into this idea by, if I recall correctly, the princess.

Thread probably needs some distinction between "has blue collar character in it" and "blue collar sensibility." Like, it's hard to find ANY Hollywood picture where every character is a rich snot who only occasionally tips at restaurants.... whereas Alien is really interested in imagining what the bold new future really looks like to the delivery people and Marine draftees.

"My last job was programming binary load-lifters, very similar to your vaporators!"

Me at every job interview ever.

which one is Aunt Beru and and which one is Uncle Owen?

xxxp

Posted this thread as a response to Star Wars, as a sense, which is space opera only in a scruffier universe. Ridley Scott took that look and mixed it with the 70s bits of trucker films, Dark Star, Silent Running, et al, and did his own.

"My last job was programming binary load-lifters, very similar to your vaporators!"

Me at every job interview ever.

― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, June 4, 2010 3:28 PM Bookmark

LOL

"They Live" is the ultimate blue collar scifi film.

'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' - i.e. Richard Dreyfuss' character.

Non blue collar sci-fi = Wyndham