F.I.S.T.

F.I.S.T.
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Norman Jewison
Produced by	Gene Corman
Screenplay by	Joe Eszterhas Sylvester Stallone
Story by	Joe Eszterhas
Starring	Sylvester Stallone Rod Steiger Peter Boyle Melinda Dillon David Huffman Kevin Conway Tony Lo Bianco
Music by	Bill Conti
Cinematography	László Kovács
Edited by	Graeme Clifford
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	1978
Running time	145 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$20,388,920

F.I.S.T. is a 1978 American drama film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Sylvester Stallone. Stallone plays Johnny Kovak, a Cleveland warehouse worker who becomes involved in the labor union leadership of the fictional "Federation of Inter-State Truckers". He finds that he must sacrifice his principles as he moves up through the union and attempts to expand its influence. The film is loosely based on the Teamsters union and their former President Jimmy Hoffa.

Many well-known actors and actresses appear in F.I.S.T., including Kevin Conway, Brian Dennehy, Rod Steiger, Melinda Dillon, Richard Herd and Peter Boyle. Although the film's title is an acronym for the "Federation of Inter-State Truckers", it also (albeit unintentionally) played on Stallone's public image as the boxer Rocky Balboa in the actor's hugely successful 1976 Academy Award–winning film, Rocky. It was Stallone's first post-Rocky film.

At a loading dock in Cleveland, Ohio in 1937, supervisor Mr. Gant welcomes a new worker, Lincoln Dombrowsky (Frank McRae). Gant tells him the job requirements and pay rules. He'll be paid for working 8 hours and if he has to work overtime, he still gets paid only for 8 hours. If he drops any of the merchandise, the cost comes directly out of his pay. These are examples of unfair working practices faced by the laborers. Later Dombrowsky drops a few carts of tomatoes, which is taken out of his pay; another worker is fired for helping him collect the fallen merchandise. Johnny Kovak (Sylvester Stallone), another worker resentful of mistreatment, leads a riot. Afterward, the workers go to the office of Boss Andrews. Kovak believes he negotiates a deal for the workers, but the next day he and his friend Abe Belkin (David Huffman) are told they are fired.