Top 10 Union Movies
The Organizer, 1963
The underclass's struggle for decent working conditions was a worldwide fight, as shown in this potent period drama that marked a change of pace for director Mario Monicelli (best known for comedies like Big Deal on Madonna Street) and that handsome slouch Marcello Mastroianni. In Turin, Italy, at the end of the 19th century, textile laborers spend 14-hour days on the dangerous factory floor. An angel arrives in strange form: the bearded, bespectacled Professor Sinigaglia (Mastroianni), who had hopped on a freight train to Turin to organize the workers into a strike that lasts a month and costs the lives of two men. Monicelli doesn't sentimentalize the labor movement, though he does caricature the factory boss. The real inspiration comes from Mastroianni's quietly imposing performance and from a splendidly urgent score by Carlo Rustichelli.