Hard Hat Riot
2025 · 81 min · Documentary, History
The clash over Vietnam that swung blue collar voters to the right.
On May 8, 1970, construction workers violently clashed with students demonstrating against the Vietnam War in lower Manhattan. The workmen, who came to be known as “hardhats,” were at the cutting edge of a new kind of class war. With the war in Vietnam raging on, it was the sons of the working class who were doing most of the fighting. Workmen saw the protesting students as privileged “draft dodgers” disparaging the country and those who fought for it. On the other side, many student activists saw the workers as pawns, unwilling to see the changes that America needed. Hard Hat Riot tells the story of a struggling metropolis, a flailing president, a divided people, and a bloody juncture when the nation violently diverged ― culminating in a new political and cultural landscape that radically redefined American politics and foreshadowed the future.
- Director
- Marc Levin
- Writers
- Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson
- Released
- September 30, 2025
- Language
- English
Cast
Where to watch in the US
Streaming data from JustWatch, via TMDB.