Norma Rae

One of those rousing films in which a blue-collar normal Joe (or in this case perhaps we should say normal Joan) stands up against the big boys in the corporate office for what is right and just. Movies like "Erin Brockovich" wouldn't exist today if movies like "Norma Rae" hadn't existed first. And "Norma Rae" is a lot easier to swallow, because it's done without all the Hollywood ritz and glamour. Director Martin Ritt specialized in making movies about blue-collar folks that looked like blue collar movies, and Sally Field, playing the factory worker who's sympathetic to an invading union organizer from the north and becomes his ace card in rallying the other workers, is a much better actress than Julia Roberts, and we're actually able to believe her in the role. The image of Field standing up on a table silently holding up a placard that says "Union" has become indelible. Grade: B+

A good acting vehicle for Sally Field, who did show her chops. She only occasionally overdoes the Southern accent. The plot is about union organizing in a Southern textile mill. Surprisingly they do not go too far in depicting management recalcitrance, not even portraying violence from them. Less surprisingly, they also ignore union violence and intimidation, a standard tactic. Well, the textile industry did unionize in the Seventies and Eighties, and it died in the Nineties. All those jobs are now in Guatemala and Bangladesh. Interestingly, the only real energy left in the union movement is in government workers, as they have no competition to hold back union excesses.

When my parents left the theater after seeing this movie my father (a big union man) wanted to talk about unions. My mother got mad at him because she thought that he missed the point. Mom was right. "Norma Rae" is not about unions. It's about people. As I watched it tonight I thought that it sometimes wasn't completely realistic. That's fine. That's not the point either. "Norma Rae" is a movie that grabs me like few do. Every one of the characters needed more screen time. Every one of them is real, even the villains. Sally Field is great but so is everybody else. "Norma Rae" is among my favorites.

Norma Rae is without a doubt one of my favorite movies of all time. I grew up in a blue collar working class family so this movie really hits home for me. An outstanding performance by Sally Field and a very powerful storyline of Unionizing a textile mill in the south make Norma Rae a movie watcher's experience rather than pure entertainment.

It's the summer of 1978. Norma Rae (Sally Field) works in a textile mill with her whole family. Her mother is going deaf from the noisy factory. Her father Vernon (Pat Hingle) threatens union organizer Reuben Warshowsky (Ron Leibman) who comes knocking on their door. She's a single mom and she ends her affair with a married man. She marries fellow worker Sonny (Beau Bridges). She starts helping Reuben causing tension in her relationships. Sally Field is brilliant as an ordinary woman. She is eminently likable. The movie is a straight forward union story. It has a good sense of realism. It helps to have the noisy mill going. It's a great movie.

I own a copy of this movie and I watch it at least twice a year. An intelligent story, without cookie-cutter characters. It still amazes and thrills me each time I see it. The fact that there was no forced romance thrust upon us, is also worth noting. Sally Field created a woman who is now part of movie history.

Sally Field's stellar performance is the highlight of this terrific movie, but Ron Leibman was just as effective in my opinion. In fact, the whole cast does a fine job, so if you're looking for superb acting, then look no further. The film is good from start to finish, but a few wonderful moments towards the end make it seem even better than it already is. Perhaps slightly overlong, but overall a great movie.