Disappointment for a huge fan!

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Beautiful, moving film.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

That booming factory floor projects all the deafening sounds of a WWI artillery barrage. Why all the workers aren't deaf amounts to a puzzler. Gutsy movie. I like the main theme. The drive to unionize not only benefits the community but brings out Norma Rae's otherwise hidden potential, not only as a person but as a leader. Revealingly, it's the Jewish outsider and organizer who triggers that potential. Otherwise, the 31-year old is caught up in drifting aimlessly through life, a human cog in the mill's inhuman machinery. Men hit on her producing three illegitimate kids, while she lives at home with her parents. But what the heck, she's just blending in with the prevailing company town. Of course, all that alters once she stops being a passive vessel and begins to think about why things have to be the way they are. I'm really surprised the screenplay makes the "trouble-making" organizer a New York Jew since that directs attention onto certain stereotypes. Still, it's a gutsy move and provides good banter as Norma Rae's southern rural seeks commonality with Reuben's eastern urban. I also like the way the screenplay refuses to vilify the company officers. That would be too easy and cheap. After all, they're cogs too, only at a higher and better-paid level. Actually, the movie and its themes remind me of the classic labor movie Salt of the Earth (1953). Unfortunately, that McCarthy-era film was withheld for years because of its supposed subversive content. Nonetheless, the theme of the individual growing through labor betterment is quite similar to Norma Rae's. And if anyone can find material that goes beyond reformist liberalism in either film, I'd like to see it.Anyway, Field proves she's a lot more than a singing nun or a frolicking beach bunny. I'm glad they cast someone petite like her and refused any hint of glamor. Seeing her small, plain frame stand up to the hulking men shows the power of personal conviction, whether male or female. All in all, the movie's a fine effort at showing the historical dynamic behind a laboring class pushing upwards to the proverbial middle. And if, as a result, manufacture looks for replacement through offshoring or mechanizing, then deeper questions than the worthy Norma Rae need raising.

Norma Rae lives in a small Southern town in her parents' home with two kids from different fathers. She's a good Christian (with "a lapse or two" as would say the priest) who goes regularly to the church and sings in the choir. Like her parents, like most of the townspeople, she works on the cotton mill, and she wouldn't be surprised if her children followed the same path. As the song says "it goes like it goes" and this is how things go for Norma Rae.Martin Ritt directs every scene in the kind of documentary-like minimalism that was slowly fading from the screens in the late 70's, the New Hollywood parenthesis was soon to be closed for more commercial movies, and those like "Norma Rae" represented a last breath of freshness before the age of prefabricated entertainment. The realism of "Norma Rae" is constant, following a straight-to-the-point screenplay. As a result, it never loses its track by creating some glimpses of romances or sentimentality, as if it deliberately embodied the common attitude of the factory workers, real no-nonsense people who talk like they think and try not to think too much. The film opens with pictures of a little girl; we recognize the eyes and smile of Sally Field. The point is to show that this little girl could have been any little girl, except that her background immediately conditioned her life. That's why she accepts it, and that's why most people accept it. It's not fatality but a form of wisdom, of acceptation that life is mostly made of struggle and effort, and that some places in the country are so modest the sun-rays of the American Dream can't touch them. The town epitomizes the darkest aspects of capitalism: less the minimum wages, the layoffs or the hellish conditions of work than the workers' submission to a modern form of slavery, and their reluctance to form a union.The situation is unbelievable and intolerable, for us. But that's the crisis-stricken America of the 70's and people were no different from their elders of the Great Depression. And as I mentioned before, people didn't think too much, it obviously took some knowledge to speak about people's rights, and when education was lacking, silence was still a better option. "Norma Rae" chronicles the evolution of a woman who was no more or no less brave, intelligent or capable than her co-workers,but she was the first to follow an intruding union organizer from New York Ron Leibman as Reuben Warshowsky, because at least, she was the first to have faith in his fight.And this faith doesn't come from nowhere. The film starts with Norma Rae's mother (Barbara Baxley) temporarily losing her audition because of all the machinery's noises, later, it's made clear that her father (Pat Hingle) has a heart condition. Norma Rae paid too much a price for the factory and Reuben's arrival coincided with a time where she couldn't take it anymore, before the power, she had the anger and that was enough. As for Reuben, he crystallizes everything Norma Rae is not, he's from the city, educated, street-smart, politically engaged, and even his Jewish background accentuates his status as a 'foreigner' and awakens a latent form of Anti-Semitism. But Norma Rae is fascinated by these differences because anything different from her world can't be that bad. A total metamorphosis would have damaged the film's credibility, but Norma Rae changes without ever changing. It's impossible to review the film without applauding Sally Fields' performance that swept off all the main acting awards that year. With her nasal voice, short temper, and frail silhouette that contrast with the goons surrounding her, Norma Rae is the perfect incarnation of the 'little people', there's a fire burning inside her, but she's constantly underestimated and patronized. And with the help of Reuben, she'll learn how to raise her voice enough to be heard. The film tactfully avoids some clichés like having a romance, or turning her new husband, played by Beau Bridges, into a jealous and bitter man, it keeps focused on Norma Rae, her personal evolution and America's average working conditions in factories.The evolution reaches a pinnacle during the film's most iconic moment, that elevated Norma Rae to one of American Cinema's greatest heroines. Forced to leave the factory, as a last resort, she writes UNION in a piece of cardboard and turns it to every worker. One by one, they stop their machine. At the end, the factory is silent but this time, it's an eloquent silence that exudes what has been restrained during so many years. It's a silence that resonates as the loud sound of solidarity. After the incident, Norma is put in jail, and finally breakdowns in Reuben's car, in what I thought, was the most powerful moment of the film, because true to life. Because that's how a real woman would have felt, no matter what Reuben had to endure, she was still the daughter of these American little towns where people have two names.The following scene might be too sentimental but it's crucial because it illustrates the deep changes in Norma Rae's personality, she tells her children about her past, her present so that they wouldn't learn it from strangers. They listen, nod, and go to sleep, then she's joined by her husband and become again the loving housewife she is. Everything will be different from there, but her conscience is clear and she knows no one would ever judge her, because at least, she stood up for her beliefs.And if "Norma Rae" is about anything, it's precisely the courage to stand up against injustice, even when we're alone, or especially when we're alone, because an injustice is only the sum of individual ones, and if they can't raise their voice, one must show the example. It goes like it goes but this is the only way it goes to victory ...

This is a review of "Silkwood" and "Norma Rae", two of the more famous "women's pictures" of the 1980s. The better of the two, "Norma Rae" stars Sally Field as Norma Rae, a textile worker in small town North Carolina. Director Martin Ritt delves into Norma's social and home life, highlights the exploitation of both Norma and her fellow workers, and then introduces Norma to a Jewish unionist played by Ron Leibman. Ron teaches Norma the importance of solidarity, worker rights and battling for betterment. Sally, meanwhile, reveals herself to be a headstrong, blue-collar warrior; the brawn behind Leibman's brains.While "Norma Rae" does trivialise (it champions a "fairer capitalism", rather than examine the contradictions of capitalism itself), it does contain a number of good passages, most of which either compare Ron and Norma's differing social backgrounds or show the textile bosses strategically promoting dissenters and so pitting workers against workers. John Alonzo's cinematography is pitch perfect, gritty, intimate and pseudo-documentarian.Some have complained that "Norma Rae" is uncritical of unions, that the film neglects to mention that Norma's textile plant promptly shut down, and then go so far as to suggest that "unions are bad" because they "end jobs" and "chase jobs offshore". We see similar arguments today, banks, and the financial sector as a whole, which proclaim themselves as being "indespensible", threatening to pack up and leave countries if taxes are raised or stricter measures are put in place. Such things are typically used as "proof" for the benefits of less regulation. In reality, it's tantamount to blackmail.Directed by Mike Nichols, "Silkwood", another blue-collar whistle-blower picture, stars Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, a lowly worker at an Oklahoma nuclear facility. Along with her best friends (played by Kurt Russell and Cher), Karen begins to gather proof of her company's copious wrongdoings, which include poor safety measures, employee exploitation and radiation spills. Like "Norma Rae", the company bosses attempt to fight back, but can't seem to counter Karen's grit and determination. Both film's are overly sentimental, deal in very broad stereotypes (bad bosses, good exploited workers, saintly activists etc), but mask their deficiencies well with their low-key tones, naturalistic acting and strong, small town atmosphere. Their ancestors are King Vidor's "Our Daily Bread" and Michael Wilson's "Salt of the Earth". Their children are everything from "Matewan" to "North Country" to "Erin Brokovich" to "The Insider" to Ken Loach's underrated "Bread and Roses". The tale's familiar, and is habitually resuscitated every now and then.Unlike most films in this genre, "Silkwood's" hero is actively stalked, hounded and murdered by the shadowy corporations she locks horns with. In real life, the nuclear facility at which Karen worked (Kerr-McGee) was rumoured to have strong ties to the US Government, the CIA and the NIA. As Karen was about to whistle-blow on the illegal sale of nuclear grade plutonium, some believe she was assassinated. In the 1970s, women like her spearheaded the anti-nuclear movement, which has been successful in stopping the construction of nuclear plants, which even today are constantly being offered as "clean", "carbon free", "reliable energy sources".8/10 - Overrated, simplistic, but well acted. Worth one viewing. See "Bread and Roses".

This is the first film that earned Sally Field an Oscar--in the title role. "Norma Rae" is a slightly fictionalized retelling of a real-life series of events (among other things, the names have been changed). It's set in a textile town in North Carolina. When a union organizer comes to town, the workers are very leery about talking with him or joining the union. However, eventually Norma Rae and a few others join. However, they face intimidation, job loss and perhaps worse if they join--even though this is a violation of the law. It seems in this town, what the mill owners want, the mill owners get. Can Norma Rae survive and win against a huge machine bent on crushing the union? This is a very compelling story--especially since these places were terrible places to work--with low wages, brown lung (a fatal disease caused by inhaling cotton fibers) and bosses who have a 'take it or leave it' attitude about the employees. Ironically, in real life, after the mill workers eventually unionized, slowly the mills began to close and jobs were sent abroad. Today you'd barely know that North Carolina was once a huge textile producing state.Overall, a very good film with a nice performance by Field and was her breakout movie role. I liked how the leading character was, at the beginning, a complete screw-up in life. But, as the film progressed, she grew up and became so much more. The plot was compelling, interesting and, at times, exciting. Not a great film but a very, very good one--and well worth your time.It's funny, but my wife seemed to have no interest in watching this film. Because her family comes from North Carolina and practically all of them worked in the mills decades ago she'd be interested...but she wasn't. Perhaps it's too depressing for her to think of her parents and grandparents working such a low paying and thankless job. Regardless, when she saw I was watching "Norma Rae", she left to find something else to do! By the way, this movie repeats an often repeated line as the Sheriff tells Norma Rae (after she's arrested) "You got one phone call...". You CAN and do have more than one phone call--it's just a movie/TV myth that it's only one.