The Last Pullman Car

Fascinating and moving
Star rating: 4/5

This past Labor Day, I caught an airing of this fine documentary on WTTW. Throughout the film's 56 minutes, the viewer is invited to struggle and protest along with the union workers who face pressing threat of unemployment. The setting is Chicago in the early '80s, and the Pullman Company has decided to discontinue the manufacturing of bi-level sleeping cars. However, the dutiful employees are not given much in terms of advance notice or compensation, which is especially distressing considering that the U.S. railroad industry was once so ripe with opportunities.

The Last Pullman Car is presented in a simple yet classic documentary style, featuring a narrated history of the railroad industry and a number of on-site interviews with America's ordinary working men and women. We don't learn a lot about the workers but their situations are evidently quite serious, as one man notes that the frustration inspired by sudden unemployment is what causes...





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