Norma Rae

A solid drama with a great cast, it does have its falling points and it could have been a little bit shorter, but overall has that mood of small-town feels and a fight-against-all-odds type of a thing that always works for me. Sally Field does really carry this movie. I liked that her character was not perfect but still was a hero in the sense of being flawed but strong where it matters. That there's an attraction that never gets fulfilled was also nice.predictable.

Field is good, everything else is fine, but unexciting. It's a film that feels very rote, devoting time to developing characters that are just fleshed out archetypes and hitting a lot of plot points just to flesh out a predictable and arc that nonetheless feels rather short on complexity or detail.

Viewed August 30, 2020.

Reminded me of a less entertaining adaptation of Steinbeck's "In Dubious Battle". Sally Field is fine, but I didn't really think she was as good as advertised. Kind of a flat film overall.

Good acting, particularly from Sallie Field. Not an incredibly interesting story though.

81.500

Too bad Fields didn't quite get her character "spot on" in the same way Andrea Martin did, playing Sally Jane Clayburgh-Streep, as Dolly, in "My Factory, My Self". If the former had been able to walk with straight arms tucked behind her back, small boobs thrust way out, and indignant, side-to-side strut, I would have given this maybe an 86.

Strange mixture of realistic setting and cliched dialog. Sally Field gives a terrific performance, though.

My ★★★½ review of Norma Rae on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/5XYNmB

80.250

I love Martin Ritt. Norma Rae is a passionate film but at the same time temperate, resisting the lures of unchecked idealism and cheap sentimentality. It is the best thing I've ever seen Sally Field do.

They sure don't make movies like they used to. The irony here is that Hollywood needed a union, where kids weren't placed in the back of a moving pickup and lead actors didn't have to get dirty lake water in their mouths! The script is punchy, Sally Field's Oscar is well deserved and the use of sound works wonders for the story. Speaking of sound, that iconic scene of Field holding up the union sign while the mill workers shut down their machines seemed like a precursor to the 80's slow clap!

Union stories have natural drama that I find very entertaining. Norma Rae is no frills and doesn't have the notes of violence that often highlight these films. What it does have, however, is a very real performance from Sally Field. As often as you've seen her standing with the union, her performance is more powerful.