(stylized on-screen as F•I•S•T) is a 1978 American action crime drama film produced and directed by Norman Jewison and starring Sylvester Stallone.

Stallone plays a Cleveland warehouse worker who becomes involved in the labor union leadership of the fictional "Federation of Inter-State Truckers" (F.I.S.T.).

At a loading dock in Cleveland in 1937, supervisor Mr. Gant hires a new worker, Polish American Lincoln Dombrowsky.

Gant tells Dombrowsky that he will only be paid for his regular shift even if he must work overtime, and that any merchandise he damages will come directly out of his pay.

When Dombrowsky drops a few carts of tomatoes, his pay is docked and another worker is fired for helping him collect the fallen merchandise.

Resentful of these unfair labor practices, Hungarian-American worker Johnny Kovak leads a riot.

The laborers go to the office of Boss Andrews, where Kovak believes he negotiates a deal for the workers, only to find out the next day that he and his friend Abe Belkin have been fired.

Kovak is given a car to use while recruiting, which also allows him to meet and soon start dating Lithuanian-American worker Anna Zarinkas.

When Kovak turns down their offer to recruit new workers to their non-union trucking firms, the shady owners have him physically attacked.

At his funeral, Kovak decides to "get some muscle" and accepts help from Vince Doyle, a local gangster.

United Artists hired Joe Eszterhas to write a screenplay about the labor movement in 1974 after executive producer Gene Corman read his articles on the subject in Rolling Stone.

He eventually failed to find another studio to co-finance the film and received a full $8.1 million budget regardless.

Because of the large bluffs, over-the-air television signals had problems reaching homes in the low-lying areas, so a cable system was developed in the mid-1950s, which was considerably earlier than many other municipalities.

Some locations used in filming included St. Raphael's Cathedral, Sacred Heart Church, the Fourth Street Elevator, E.J.

is a big movie that benefits from the accumulating of small, ordinary detail than from any particular wit or inspiration of vision....Like Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar and Rollerball, Mr. Jewison's last three films, F.I.S.T.

There's not a moment in it to compare with the intensity of feelings contained in such documentaries as Union Maids and Harlan County, U.S.A, yet it's encouraging to hear Hollywood talking about such things at a time when play-it-safe is virtually industry policy.” [7] Another positive review came from TV Guide, which gave the film three stars out of four.

"[citation needed] A negative review came from Richard Schickel of Time, who said that the film "stands for nearly 2+1⁄2 hours of almost unmitigated boredom—a misfired would-be proletarian epic with Sylvester Stallone misplaying the Jimmy Hoffa part with a self-confidence that borders on the sublime.