User Reviews

An eye opening film. It gave me a perspective for blue collar jobs that I didn't know I lacked. What spoke to me was the way this film was carried throughout the film in following various tradesmen in their everyday "studios." Doing what they know how to do best, giving the viewer an authentic experience of what it is like to hold a blue collar job. The passion behind these skilled tradesmen is nothing but inspiring, worthy of the highest respect and admiration.

I feel that this video shows a lot of valuable information about Blue Collar jobs and the way non-degree applicants are viewed. It was interesting to hear from various different trade job employees on their perspective of the changing times and how they came to be where they were in their respective fields. It is funny to me, as I feel the same way about my career, that most of the tradesman enjoyed their careers but did not want their children following in their footsteps. I would have rated this film higher but I feel it was a little outdated for the times.

A fantastic and eye opening documentary. It is wonderful to see skilled worker's individual love and passion for their work shine though in this video. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the CTE or trade world. It is a positive step in the right direction for the field.

The movie brought up so many great points made by these hard working men and women on the development of problem solving and creative thinking that goes along with the everyday work these people face. The stereo types, yet attributions given from their sweat and back breaking work. This country does not give blue collar workers enough credit, and our "throw away society." This movie showed passion, heart, and innovates that goes into an actual hard days work. The raw talent of these men and women are imaginable to any that would be in a museum, I hope that people take note and begin to change the view on the stereo typical blue collar employee. I am inspired and grateful to be apart of such an amazing industry.

I really liked the documentary the Tradesman:Making an Art of work. It was easy to follow to get the information that was needed and it was not boring like most of them are. The video has a lot of good information and statistics to help gather information on the tradesmen. I agree with some of the information that was given in the video. This is a very educational video that also defines what the tradesman are and the type of work that they do.

I have watched this documentary twice, and still after the second time, I am still learning. This documentary opened my eyes to the different aspects of the Blue Collar industry. It is one of those documentaries that serve a purpose in the lives of those who watch it. It should be a necessary movie that I think should be shown to young aspiring students who are about to enter the workforce. This documentary excellently showcases that it doesn't take much to do something that you are good at; you just have to love it.

This documentary was interesting and informative as it places a greater importance on the need for tradesman in the United States. Various trades are discussed in this film and what roles they play in the infrastructure of our country. These trades are often looked down upon in the higher social classes because of the labor intensive work, but the focus of this film is to focus on the knowledge and intelligence these workers posses. Intelligence is often measured on what kind of educational background we have on our resume, but the tradesman portrayed in this film have a great deal of intelligence that has been learned throughout their trade. This documentary would be great for high school students to watch so they may spark some interest into vocational training versus college education. The information seems to be a little dated and I would have also appreciated a national focus rather than focus trades in Baltimore.

This documentary was definitely one of those movies that just opens up your mind and changes your perceptions of things. Because of this, I now have more knowledge of how hard many people with blue collar jobs work and the passion that they encompass greatly impact the result of their craft. This documentary showed me that it does not require much to do something you are good at; you just have to begin and love it. I was inspired by the hard work, the love, and the passion they had, and I realized that, these are the types of jobs that are needed in our daily lives. I realized that we will be limited to many things if the jobs that were featured in the documentary did not exist. I believe that the people who hold jobs in the blue-collar sector should be more appreciated and given credit and respect for the work that they do. Because without them, just how are we supposed to live?

I give this film a review of ten out of ten, this film gave an excellent insight on the working class. Before watching this film, I held certain bias toward tradesman. This film gives theses workers an opportunity to share their stories on a first-hand basis, which gives a better understanding of where they are coming from. These men and women are hardworking intelligent people and truly are the bread of butter of our society. They do the jobs that are imperative to our daily lives and the ones that are often forgotten about, and they do them with care and love. I recommend this film to anyone and everyone, there is always opportunity to hear someone's story and understand someone better.

Your review: This movie lacked some of the technical side that I have seen in the trades industry, so I gave it a lower score than most. Also the interviews of each tradesman seemed to focus on how run down they looked. Even the attitudes and demeaner was that of someone that just did not like their job. How can we expect the cultural bias about "Dirty Jobs" to change, if the workers themselves have no joy or pride in what they do? We all need to be more educated about our respective careers and how they fit into society. Helping both the blue collar and white collar to understand their need for each other would go a long way towards reducing the social biases. Overall, I believe this movie portrays that idea so I would recommend it be updated and relaunched.

The documentary "The Tradesmen-making an art of work" shed a light on the mastery of the skills needed to perform each occupation and the often negative connotation associated with "blue collar jobs". With a rapidly changing America, there is a growing shortage of skilled workers combined with an education bubble that exists of too many people with college degrees and a large amount of debt. I didn't rate this film 10 out of 10 because it was produced in 2011 and some of the statistics are becoming out dated. An example of this is the low estimate of current tuition costs and the increase amount of college debt. They have skyrocketed since this movie was made.

The Tradesman was a brief overlook at the negative outlook of manual labor in the United States. It brings up great points of a vast amount of careers throughout the country that pay well and also require a much higher level of intelligence than what most people would think a plumber or carpenter would have to know. The film goes over the reality of the skills and education someone in any of these blue collar fields has to undergo in order to be successful in any of these highly technical blue collar fields. It explores the lives of many different hard blue collar workers and the effects they have on their community and their country and how this country would not have survived and will not be able to continue to survive without a national discussion on social classes and biases on intelligence in the trades.

I feel the film was a bit fragmented and as a result, did not provide as clear a message as I had hoped. The problem for me was that I was under the impression that this film was about the plight of the blue-collar worker. This was discussed, but then the filmmaker decided to go off in some rather odd directions. The first was to get into the personal lives of some of the workers, and although these segments were mildly interesting, I just don't feel they added enough to the story to merit their having been inserted. What I found to be a bit more odd was the segments highlighting the artistic talents of some of the workers interviewed. I suppose given the title of the film I should have expected it, however, after viewing them I was a bit dumbfounded as to why they were ever put in the film. They just didn't add much to the story at all. They simply were not very compelling to the story. In fact, I found these segments to be quite boring. It felt as if these segments were tossed in as an afterthought.

Don't get me wrong, I am a weldor myself and so I am definitely on the side of the American worker, and I thought everyone of the workers highlighted in this film were great, I just don't believe the filmmaker did them justice.

Ultimately, I feel the film's real flaw was in the editing. It seemed to be either too long or too short. The film suffered from either too much information without really packing a punch, or just not enough information to get the point across and make it compelling. In the end, it just fell short for me.

Thought provoking, and very interesting. I found it sad and parts heartbreaking, the old men who have such pride in their jobs, and no one wants to learn from them. Mike Rowe brings an up to date twist on this documentary with his speech. The very survival of our modern day society and working class people, depend on the tradesmen and the tradesmen abilities to both pass the trade down to others who want to learn, and the ability to transform their trade into functional, sustainable jobs. Having a closer look at specific tradesmen, and tradesmen who do their work well, there is an incredible amount of intelligence required. I don't think society will ever change its mind, as a whole, about the industrial base. Tradesmen will always be looked down upon, as lower class, than others.

This documentary gave great footage of the blue collar trade. It was great to hear the background, the science, math, and chemistry that goes into these trades. More so, the pride that these individuals take in their jobs, companies, and trainings is outstanding. Unfortunately, like the documentary said, many people do not praise, or even thank, the blue collar worker. Without these workers we would not be able to maintain our lifestyles. This film hit every aspect of the issues that blue collar workers face—the criticism, the physical pain, the education behind it. My only bad review of this documentary would be the camera shots. It made me dizzy to stair at the constantly moving picture.

Informative look at people who work in the trades, and their love of what they do. It delves into the prejudices and stereotypes against these hard working people, and the perceptions that they are lesser ranked in society compared to college educated individuals. It also looks at how technology has taken away the from the craft and artistry of some trades, such as wood working. It also looks at how education plays a role in how these trades are being learned by a new generation, and how they should be learned. Leaders and policy makers should all watch this documentary and take steps to help ensure these trades survive and are taken up by a new generation of skilled tradesmen.

This documentary was very fulfilling in a way that kept my attention while giving me statistics and facts to continue to think about after the film ends. Seeing the real-life side of things when it comes to CTE jobs is powerful because it is not usually seen in the world. This video gave me ideas about how I will be able to share this information with my students and see how this interests them in the field. Students may be able to find an interest in these careers and build up our cities together. This may also break the education bubble through sharing all of this information and this film with my students.

This documentary focuses on the concept that the United States requires a shift in our societal thinking when it comes to blue collar workers. This documentary showcases many trades' fields, from carpenters, welders, mason's, auto mechanics and plumbers. The thought that students need to go to college and that a trade is a dead end job and is a fall back career is something that needs to change. I liked how it showcases these many trade industry's and took the perspective of the worker and how they feel society thinks about them. I would have liked to see them take a more national view on work, not just Baltimore. Even though the focus is on Baltimore, the entire nation of tradesmen feel this way, it would have been nice to get the perspective of more national tradesmen.

The Tradesmen – Making an Art of Work is a documentary film showcasing tradesmen from the east coast. The commentaries from everyday people as they work and live show viewers the raw truth of the lives of tradesmen. The film is able to quietly surprise viewers with the creativity, intelligence and drive of the few trades-persons highlighted. The back breaking work, application of knowledge, and displays of talent spotlights the character and high level of learning needed to succeed in the trades. As our society is fighting the inability to fill these necessary jobs, the United States infrastructure is aging and crumbling, and college tuition rates sky rocket films like The Tradesmen – Making an Art of Work need to be used to change our biases and educate everyone about trade jobs. This film was good, though I would have enjoyed it more if they selected less shy, quiet, and socially awkward tradesmen to help diffuse all negative stereotypes and focused more on the successful, bright, continuously learning tradesmen only briefly mentioned.

The Tradesman is an overview of the outlook on blue collar work. The film begins by showcasing many negative stereotypes of manual/blue collar work; however, it highlights several respectable points of why blue collar work is required. Then, the movie transitions and follows several blue collar workers in Baltimore, Maryland and demonstrates what blue collar work is really like. I did find the film informative at times, but slow in others. They did a decent job of displaying what blue collar work consists of, but they painted it as a low- income profession. The camera work could have been improved. I thought some of the interviews where shot way too outrageous. The camera was zooming in and out, and it became blurry at times. Overall, I would recommend the film to someone who is interested in the blue collar/white collar debate.

The narrative of this film was terrible. It seems as if all trades people are soaking their tears in what once was and how everything is falling apart and how their feelings are hurt. There is no passion.

I felt the movie was very informative. As a tradesman myself, I liked that the craftspeople were cast in a favorable light. The film opened my eyes to just how some people think about trades. The film strongly reinforced some of the opinions I hold about trade work. However, I did find myself disagreeing with one statement made by one of the carpenters. He stated that the type of work he was doing cannot be found in books. I disagree. The are volumes written about carpentry. There are books about engineering, framing, trim, design, and finish. A carpenter is the one who pulls it all together. He and I can agree on that.

I found this film to be very informative regarding tradesmen and the inner workings of how they are a huge part of our society. The film kept my interest throughout the whole movie. I liked the "realness" of the tradesmen by showing their stories, experiences and thoughts of other tradesmen in their field of work.