Labor's Told Story-Partially
Added 9/16/2009
On the face of it today a story about an impoverished, hard-nosed widowed woman trying to support several children working in a southern textile mill and who seeks to unionize the plant against one of the major textile companies might rate a documentary or docu-drama treatment but, perhaps not much else. The demographics and the audience would probably not be there for such a commercial endeavor, Sally Field or no Sally Field. That says more about the state of the organized labor movement in this country, the dramatic decline in union membership, the lack of recent successful major union organizing drives, the "globalization" of industry that has de-industrialized America and the attenuation of links between the old trade union movement forged in the class battles of the 1930s and 1940s and their grandchildren, today's youth.
Back in 1973, however, this film was a hit not only because of the well-done performances by Sally Fields, as that down-troddened but spirited woman turned effective union organizer and Ron Liebman, as the northern union organizer called in to advice (?) Norma Rae. 1950s "red scare" black-listed writer Martin Ritt, who directed this film, also deserves kudos for not overburdening the film with unnecessary sentimentality. The times then thus were not out of joint for such an effort. The residue of 1960s radicalism and pro-working class sentiments still hung in the air. Moreover, the times were just becoming ripe for serious films about the trials and tribulations of women, especially working women and their problems, under the sign of the burgeoning women's movement.
Of courser this particular review is posted here today because, unfortunately, the real-life model for the character of Norma Rae Crystal Lee Sutton has just passed away in North Carolina at the age of 68. I will finish up here by quoting a remark that I made in another space about her passing that also reflects on the highlight dramatically tense moment in the film:
"No labor militant, or even just a simple friend of the international labor movement could do anything but cheer at that moment in "Norma Rae", based on the actual experience of Crystal Lee Sutton, when Sally Field silently holds up a handmade sign that said "Union"- and everyone downs tools. Such events are the stuff not just of labor legend, but under the right circumstances revolution. Farewell, Sister." I need say no more.
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"Sally Field Is Outstanding"
Added 6/27/2009
Sally Field proved to Hollywood that she was more than just "The Flying Nun" when she starred in Norma Rae. Winner of the Best Actress Oscar in 1979 for the film, Sally stars as an uneducated mill worker who struggles to form a union in her workplace. The picture also received the Academy Award for Best Song for "It Goes Like It Goes" sung by Jennifer Warren. The film co-stars Ron Leibman, Beau Bridges, and Pat Hingle. Martin Ritt did a superb job directing.
The DVD is filled with bonuses including the film being in widescreen format, scene selection, a 20 minutes backstory on the film, the original theatrical trailer, and subtitles in english and spanish.
New York Magazine says, "Sally Field gives a funny, tremendously affecting performance with moments of startling anger and power".
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Sometimes you have to fight for your rights...
Added 3/5/2009
There are a lot of films about the overworked and underappreciated finally standing up for themselves and fighting for what they know they are owed; but `Norma Rae' is a notch above most of them. Not only is it moving but it is engrossing and enlightening. It works its magic in all areas of the film; shedding light on the issues, gathering our support and fleshing out three-dimensional characters we love, love to hate and even hate to love.
Norma is a small town girl who is doing what she's been brought up to do. She's a widow who is raising her two children while living with her overprotective father and working in the same mill as her parents. She is going nowhere fast, but she doesn't know any better. Then Reuben shows up in her town and tosses her whole life upside down. Reuben is a unionizer from New York who is determined to make things better for the working class people in the area. He only needs to rally enough support from the likes of Norma, and after she witnesses what the corrupt men in power are willing to do to prevent the union she becomes all the more determined to get it passed.
What is so wonderful about `Norma Rae' is that it is as much about the woman that is Norma as it is about the union she so fervently wants to get passed. The film is interested in her as a person, and thus we become interested in her; in her family life, her love life, her past and her eventual future. The film's primary interest is focused on her dedication to the union, but it also gives ample time to build her relationship with her small town boyfriend/husband Sonny as well as her budding relationship with Reuben.
The film is multilayered.
Sally Field won her first Oscar for her riveting portrayal of Norma. It's funny; when the film starts we get a taste of overacting at its finest with Norma screaming at her boss about how her mother is deaf because of the noise in the mill. I immediately began to wonder if this was going to be one of those flashy performances that is almost all show and no depth. I said a silent prayer that Field not scream through this whole movie and my prayer was instantly answered. Yes, Field is impeccable here, capturing the essence of this woman with steely determination. Some of her quieter scenes are her most captivating; especially when she confesses to her husband that Reuben is in her head. That scene is instantly stolen from her though, but her co-star Beau Bridges who grabs your heart with when he responds that no one else is in his head by Norma. Beau has gotten the shaft over the years. I guess that's what happens when your brother is Jeff Bridges. I must tell you though, Beau is a talent all his own. His performance here is beyond words. He is so moving, so sincere and so lovable.
Every husband should strive to be more like him, and every woman would be lucky to find a man like him.
`Norma Rae' is a splendid film about one woman's struggle to save her family and her entire town from the clutches of corruption; to give them what they work so hard for and spare them any further abuse. It is also a story of a woman's struggle to find herself amidst a town that never changes and barely allows room for self expression. This is a film about life and what you make of it and what you're willing to sacrifice in order to get what you deserve.
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No Anniversary Edition?
Added 2/7/2009
I saw this when it first came out on video, which was some time ago! I'm surprised a 25th anniversary edition wasn't made--with extra stuff, like interviews with the actors who are still around, maybe a mini-documentary about the true story on which it's based.
Well, all those extra things would be nice, but let's face it: This is a gem no matter what!
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TACKLING INDUSTRIAL ISSUES
Added 11/13/2008
Norma Rae
I saw the film (from my Dad's Collection), in our home theatre. Granted the acting is very good, the production is excellent and the story relevant, there's still something irritating (for me) in the way a young mother, Sally Field, ignores her husband (Beau Bridges) and kids to spend every possible moment , day and night, with a slimy union official (Ron Liebman). They are trying to bring the bring the workers at a Southern Textile Plant into much-needed solidarity and director, Martin Ritt is obviously trying equally as hard to avoid the usual cliches of the hard-hearted, pig-headed, capitalistic boss and the passive severely put-upon workers. Sally Field succeeds more than Ritt does. On the one hand, the textile workers learn how to strike, get better wages and a little employer respect. On the other hand, there's a family crying out for their mother. Music and credits are superb. Sally Field won an Academy Award for her performance.
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Labor's Told Story-Partially
Added 9/16/2009
On the face of it today a story about an impoverished, hard-nosed widowed woman trying to support several children working in a southern textile mill and who seeks to unionize the plant against one of the major textile companies might rate a documentary or docu-drama treatment but, perhaps not much else. The demographics and the audience would probably not be there for such a commercial endeavor, Sally Field or no Sally Field. That says more about the state of the organized labor movement in this country, the dramatic decline in union membership, the lack of recent successful major union organizing drives, the "globalization" of industry that has de-industrialized America and the attenuation of links between the old trade union movement forged in the class battles of the 1930s and 1940s and their grandchildren, today's youth.
Back in 1973, however, this film was a hit not only because of the well-done performances by Sally Fields, as that down-troddened but spirited woman turned effective union organizer and Ron Liebman, as the northern union organizer called in to advice (?) Norma Rae. 1950s "red scare" black-listed writer Martin Ritt, who directed this film, also deserves kudos for not overburdening the film with unnecessary sentimentality. The times then thus were not out of joint for such an effort. The residue of 1960s radicalism and pro-working class sentiments still hung in the air. Moreover, the times were just becoming ripe for serious films about the trials and tribulations of women, especially working women and their problems, under the sign of the burgeoning women's movement.
Of courser this particular review is posted here today because, unfortunately, the real-life model for the character of Norma Rae Crystal Lee Sutton has just passed away in North Carolina at the age of 68. I will finish up here by quoting a remark that I made in another space about her passing that also reflects on the highlight dramatically tense moment in the film:
"No labor militant, or even just a simple friend of the international labor movement could do anything but cheer at that moment in "Norma Rae", based on the actual experience of Crystal Lee Sutton, when Sally Field silently holds up a handmade sign that said "Union"- and everyone downs tools. Such events are the stuff not just of labor legend, but under the right circumstances revolution. Farewell, Sister." I need say no more.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
"Sally Field Is Outstanding"
Added 6/27/2009
Sally Field proved to Hollywood that she was more than just "The Flying Nun" when she starred in Norma Rae. Winner of the Best Actress Oscar in 1979 for the film, Sally stars as an uneducated mill worker who struggles to form a union in her workplace. The picture also received the Academy Award for Best Song for "It Goes Like It Goes" sung by Jennifer Warren. The film co-stars Ron Leibman, Beau Bridges, and Pat Hingle. Martin Ritt did a superb job directing.
The DVD is filled with bonuses including the film being in widescreen format, scene selection, a 20 minutes backstory on the film, the original theatrical trailer, and subtitles in english and spanish.
New York Magazine says, "Sally Field gives a funny, tremendously affecting performance with moments of startling anger and power".
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Sometimes you have to fight for your rights...
Added 3/5/2009
There are a lot of films about the overworked and underappreciated finally standing up for themselves and fighting for what they know they are owed; but `Norma Rae' is a notch above most of them. Not only is it moving but it is engrossing and enlightening. It works its magic in all areas of the film; shedding light on the issues, gathering our support and fleshing out three-dimensional characters we love, love to hate and even hate to love.
Norma is a small town girl who is doing what she's been brought up to do. She's a widow who is raising her two children while living with her overprotective father and working in the same mill as her parents. She is going nowhere fast, but she doesn't know any better. Then Reuben shows up in her town and tosses her whole life upside down. Reuben is a unionizer from New York who is determined to make things better for the working class people in the area. He only needs to rally enough support from the likes of Norma, and after she witnesses what the corrupt men in power are willing to do to prevent the union she becomes all the more determined to get it passed.
What is so wonderful about `Norma Rae' is that it is as much about the woman that is Norma as it is about the union she so fervently wants to get passed. The film is interested in her as a person, and thus we become interested in her; in her family life, her love life, her past and her eventual future. The film's primary interest is focused on her dedication to the union, but it also gives ample time to build her relationship with her small town boyfriend/husband Sonny as well as her budding relationship with Reuben.
The film is multilayered.
Sally Field won her first Oscar for her riveting portrayal of Norma. It's funny; when the film starts we get a taste of overacting at its finest with Norma screaming at her boss about how her mother is deaf because of the noise in the mill. I immediately began to wonder if this was going to be one of those flashy performances that is almost all show and no depth. I said a silent prayer that Field not scream through this whole movie and my prayer was instantly answered. Yes, Field is impeccable here, capturing the essence of this woman with steely determination. Some of her quieter scenes are her most captivating; especially when she confesses to her husband that Reuben is in her head. That scene is instantly stolen from her though, but her co-star Beau Bridges who grabs your heart with when he responds that no one else is in his head by Norma. Beau has gotten the shaft over the years. I guess that's what happens when your brother is Jeff Bridges. I must tell you though, Beau is a talent all his own. His performance here is beyond words. He is so moving, so sincere and so lovable.
Every husband should strive to be more like him, and every woman would be lucky to find a man like him.
`Norma Rae' is a splendid film about one woman's struggle to save her family and her entire town from the clutches of corruption; to give them what they work so hard for and spare them any further abuse. It is also a story of a woman's struggle to find herself amidst a town that never changes and barely allows room for self expression. This is a film about life and what you make of it and what you're willing to sacrifice in order to get what you deserve.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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