Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

The Working Class Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 19, 2023

If you've attained any semblance of adulthood, chances are you've probably had at least one job you couldn't stand. There's a lot of blather detailing the supposed differences between various socioeconomic systems like, say, Capitalism, Socialism and/or Communism, but my hunch is if you were to poll workers in any socioeconomic system, you'd find a rather large number expressing at least some form of discontent with the features of their employment. That would lead this armchair philosopher to aver that any system which forces a human being into toil simply to be able to survive might have some 'splainin' to do, at least to those who believe in little things like personal dignity. As some of the supplements on this disc get into, one of the central tenets of Marxist philosophy is the dehumanizing aspects of factory work in particular, where humans basically become machines themselves, especially in such work environments as those which feature assembly lines, where the worker is expected to perform the same action over and over (and over) again for, as this film mentions, "eight hours a day, six days a week". The Working Class Goes to Heaven is an unabashed polemic, but unlike many screed like offerings, it actually has a secure emotional foundation which tethers the sometimes hyperbolic plot machinations (no pun intended) to understandable and accessible experience. Lulù Massa (Gian Maria Volonté) is indeed a worker in a factory, and he's actually invited the umbrage of his fellow workers because he has upped the ante in terms of "output", and has therefore set a speed standard that the rest of the place really doesn't want to have to live up to, despite the bourgeoisie's insistence that everyone produce as much as he does.

That aforementioned allusion to the worker becoming part of the machine turns out to be horrifyingly literal in the case of Lulù, when his near crazed attempts to outdo his already impressive production stats leads to him surrendering a finger to the device where he spends his days toiling, in a kind of Kafkaesque nightmare that doesn't shirk from depicting factory life as akin to being in a prison. Having one of your fingers sliced off by a machine you're working with is probably more than enough to wake anybody up, to say the least. And so (and forgive me this pun, but it's unavoidable) it's perhaps unsurprising that Lulù suddenly becomes what we in modern parlance might term significantly more "woke" about how The Man uses the pawns who do the dirty work, so to speak. That growing awareness on the part of Lulù creates both opportunities and obstacles to his professional and personal life, and it's in this character's "awakening" that The Working Class Goes to Heaven finds its real power.

It's maybe just a little surprising that director Elio Petri is not more generally well remembered, even by so-called "devoted cineastes". He had a long if not overwhelmingly prolific career, perhaps due at least in part to his succumbing to cancer at the relatively young age of 53. Aside from this film sharing the Palme d'Or with The Mattei Affair in 1972, Petri's Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, so he would seem ripe for rediscovery (Arrow also released Property Is No Longer a Theft, which I reviewed some time ago).

The Working Class Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Working Class Goes to Heaven is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Radiance Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Radiance's insert booklet contains the following notes on the transfer:

The Working Class Goes to Heaven was scanned in 2K from an interpositive and restored and colour graded by Studio Cine, Rome in 2020. Additional colour correction was performed by Radiance Films in 2022 with a video transfer of a 35mm release print used as a colour reference. The original mon soundtrack was restored by Radiance Films in 2022 from a digital track transferred from a 35mm optical soundtrack positive. Many instances of clicks, pops and crackle were manually removed.

This is a really nicely organic looking presentation, one with an admittedly kind of textured and thick grain field a lot of the time, but where grain is tightly resolved and contributes to a natural appearance. The palette is generally very nicely suffused, though as can probably be gleaned from some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, there's an intentionally drab, dirty and at times wintry look to things, an approach that probably only reinforces the claustrophobic aspects of the workers' lives. A couple of homebound scenes with Lulù are bathed in the glow from a television or other minimalist lighting, but detail levels are still at least relatively secure. There's no major damage of any kind to report. My score is 4.25.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Working Class Goes to Heaven features an LPCM Mono track in the original Italian. There's good reproduction of both the clamorous confines of the factory, where the sounds of machinery can overpower any human interactions, as well as relatively quieter moments when Lulù is more or less a zombie watching tv at home in the evenings. Another interesting and at times propulsively percussive score by Ennio Morricone also sounds full bodied. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Elio Petri (HD; 6:38) offers the director at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972 in a snippet from a French television broadcast. Subtitled in English (and kind of comically, the snippets from the film also bear French subtitles).


• Gian Maria Volonté (HD; 35:13) offers another, longer piece culled from a French television broadcast, this one from 1984. Subtitled in English.


• Corrado Solari (HD; 15:03) is a 2015 interview with the actor. Subtitled in English.


• Alex Cox (HD; 10:10) provides some interesting insight into the film and its star in this piece produced for this release.


• Petri's Praxis: Ideology and Cinema in Postwar Italy (HD; 20:38) is a really interesting visual essay by Matthew Kowalski that explores Petri's interest in leftist ideologies.


• The Working Class Goes to Heaven - Background to a Film Shot in Novara (HD; 49:38) is a 2006 documentary by Serena Checcucci and Enrico Omodeo Sale that looks at some of the actual locations and the impact of the shoot. Subtitled in English.


• Trailer (HD; 3:39) comes with a prefatory warning about shoddy quality.

Radiance provides another nicely appointed insert booklet, this one with a number of interesting essays, interviews and contemporary reviews. Packaging features a reversible sleeve and Radiance's quasi-obi strip.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Norma Rae may have thought she had it hard, but, hey, she made it out of the maelstrom with all fingers intact, at least that we know of. Joking aside, this film may seem to be about workers' rights in a general sense, when it may be almost more metaphysical in a way, detailing someone who suddenly becomes aware of how he's personally being oppressed. Maybe this release augurs further Blu-ray editions of Petri's other films. Technical merits are solid and the supplements very well done. Highly recommended.