''The Killing Floor'' is a 1984 American
made-for-television
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made fo ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by
Bill Duke
William Henry Duke Jr. (born February 26, 1943) is an American actor and film director. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke works primarily in the action and crime drama genres often as a character related to law enforcement. Frequently ...
which highlights the plights of workers fighting to build an interracial labor union in the meatpacking industry in the years leading up to the
Chicago race riot of 1919
The Chicago race riot of 1919 was a violent racial conflict between white Americans and black Americans that began on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, on July 27 and ended on August 3, 1919. During the riot, 38 people died (23 black and ...
. The film debuted on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
via the ''
American Playhouse
''American Playhouse'' is an American anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Overview
It premiered on January 12, 1982, with ''The Shady Hill Kidnapping'', written and narrated by John Cheever an ...
'' series on April 10, 1984 and was produced by Public Forum Productions, an independent company founded by the film's writer Elsa Rassbach. The teleplay was later adapted by
Leslie Lee. In July 2021, the film was shown in the Cannes Classics section at the
2021 Cannes Film Festival
The 74th annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 6 to 17 July 2021, after having been originally scheduled from 11 to 22 May 2021. American director Spike Lee was invited to be the head of the jury for the festival for a second time, after t ...
.
Plot
Based on real individuals and actual events, the film focuses on two poor black
sharecroppers
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land.
Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
who leave Mississippi for the
Chicago stockyards to seek out employment opportunities vacated by soldiers who had departed for
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Frank Custer (played by
Damien Leake
Damien Leake (born August 12, 1952, in The Bronx, New York City) is an American actor and record-holding masters track and field athlete.
Starting with a role in 1973's ''Serpico'', Leake has had a continuous career appearing in some 70 motion pi ...
) and Thomas Joshua (Ernest Rayford) eventually secure jobs working in the infamous meatpacking industry, where they are forced to confront racism, labor disputes, layoffs, and union organizing.
Custer, the film’s main protagonist, is eventually persuaded by his fellow workers to join the
Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America Union, pitting him against a variety of forces, including his non-union black co-workers, as well as the Polish, Irish, Lithuanian, and Germans also living and working in the area.
The film focuses on many individuals who were responsible for leading the charge to build strong, interracial labor unions in the 1930s.
Cast
*
Damien Leake
Damien Leake (born August 12, 1952, in The Bronx, New York City) is an American actor and record-holding masters track and field athlete.
Starting with a role in 1973's ''Serpico'', Leake has had a continuous career appearing in some 70 motion pi ...
as Frank Custer
*
Alfre Woodard
Alfre Woodard (; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards (tying the record for the most acting Emmys won by an African-American performer, along with Regina King ...
as Mattie, Custer's wife
*
Dennis Farina
Donaldo Gugliermo "Dennis" Farina (February 29, 1944 – July 22, 2013) was an American actor. Often typecast as a mobster or police officer, he is known for roles such as FBI Agent Jack Crawford in '' Manhunter'', mobster Jimmy Serrano in th ...
as Supervisor, killing floor supervisor
*
Ernest Rayford as Thomas Joshua
*
Moses Gunn
Moses Gunn (October 2, 1929 – December 16, 1993) was an American actor of stage and screen. An Obie Award-winning stage player, he is an alumnus of the Negro Ensemble Company. His 1962 off-Broadway debut was in Jean Genet's ''The Blacks,'' and ...
as Heavy Williams, anti-union antagonist
*
Clarence Felder
Clarence Felder (born September 2, 1938) is an American character actor who has starred in films and on television, and co-starred in ten Broadway productions. He is also a playwright and director. His play ''Captain Felder's Cannon'' was adapte ...
as Bremer, union leader
*
John Mahoney
Charles John Mahoney (June 20, 1940 – February 4, 2018) was an English-born American actor. He was known for playing Martin Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Frasier'' (1993–2004), and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for the role in 2000. Mahone ...
as Thomas Condon, meatpacking company representative
Production
Rassbach did extensive research on Chicago's history while writing the story, and hired Lee to draft a manuscript. The total budget for the film was $1.2 million, and funding was culled from a variety of unorthodox sources. Given the film's focus on Chicago's labor history, Rassbach approached more than three dozen unions for support, eliciting donations ranging from $1,000 to $300,000. The film's end credits include a long list of guilds and locals who contributed.
Filmed in Chicago, the production was made at a challenging time for unions, after Ronald Reagan had fired over 11,000 striking members of the
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization in 1981. Conversely, Chicago had recently elected their first African American mayor,
Harold Washington
Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st Mayor of Chicago. Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city's mayor in April 1983. He served as may ...
, whose campaign helped recruit numerous black extras to appear in the film. In addition, the local
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the ...
were said to believe in the film's objective, and worked for half-pay during production.
Reception
The film was selected for the
International Critics Week
Critics' Week (french: link=no, Semaine de la critique), until 2008 called International Critics' Week ('), is a parallel section to the Cannes Film Festival organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was created in 1962 after the Fre ...
(
Semaine de la critique
Critics' Week (french: link=no, Semaine de la critique), until 2008 called International Critics' Week ('), is a parallel section to the Cannes Film Festival organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was created in 1962 after the Fre ...
) at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
in 1985, and winner of the
Sundance Film Festival's Special Jury Prize in that same year.
Release information
Originally, the film was set to be the initial production for a PBS series of ten historical docu-dramas exploring the little-known history of American workers. Rassbach developed the project together with a cohort of historians and screenwriters, though ''The Killing Floor'' was the only film ever made in the series. To recognize the 100th anniversary of the Chicago race riots in 2019, the film underwent
4K DCP digital restoration by the
University of California-Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
Film & Television Archive.
References
External links
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Official Trailer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Killing Floor, The
1984 films
1984 television films
1984 drama films
American independent films
American films based on actual events
American drama films
American Playhouse
African-American drama films
Films about activists
Films about the labor movement
Films about racism
Films directed by Bill Duke
Films set in the 1910s
Films set in 1917
Films set in 1919
Films set in Chicago
Films shot in Chicago
Sundance Film Festival award winners
World War I television films
1980s American films