It wasn't until I saw Lincoln this past year actress Sally Field showed up on my radar. Her performance as Mary Todd Lincoln exposed the rare fragility and anxiety we weren't taught about the First Lady in our history books. I was truly in awe of her very small yet memorable performance.
Before Lincoln, sure I had been aware of Field and her presence in film and television. But I always seem to miss important points of her career to really know her career. A film from her filmography - deemed as the transformative role in her career Norma Rae is one that I had always wanted to see. Seeing it fully was always lost on me until recently.![]()
In a small North Carolina town almost everyone has a connection the cotton mills. Either they worked in them or knew / related to someone who did. Since she was sixteen years old Norma Rae (Sally Field) was one of those workers. Getting paid minimum wage under power hungry employers, Rae is a single mother with an immediate family whose health and livelihood has been threatened under the mills horrible working conditions.
After listening to a New York union organizer Reuben Warshowsky (Ron Leibman) address the idea of unionizing the shop, she takes on the challenge to unionize the mill. It's not only for herself but her fellow workers, including family members, who are overworked, underpaid, and their issues are never addressed.
The film and character Norma Rae is based on Crystal Lee Sutton who battled higher-ups for ten years to unionize the mill she worked at. Film-wise it takes a while for this challenge to be accomplished, but you're not bored until then. About every half hour or so a new threat or obstacle ups the ante as Rae and Rueben work tirelessly to recruit new members.
Best Bits: What I really liked about Norma Rae is that the character has two wonderful male counterparts, but she never becomes anybody's baby. (As it often can be female-leading films.)
The most impactful leading man is Ron Leibman, who as Rueben Warshowsky gives a knock-out performance. Rueben is a hardass, her pal, and never quit New York guy. His and Rae's professional relationship borders on the boundaries of friends and something more.
The second is Beau Bridges who plays her husband, Sonny Webster. Rae's and Webster's relationship was more pragmatic than anything romantic. On a date with all of their children in the woods, he suggests that their lives might be easier if they lived them together. There aren't many glitzy scenes of romance between them but a certain amount of mutual respect.
Between the three of them the movie just barely offers a possible love affair between Rae and Rueben, but never fully goes there. The movie doesn't go out of its way to show that Rae is her own woman and "can't be tamed". But, there isn't a curtain shadowing that behind every great woman is a man pulling all the strings. And their trio relationship never becomes a pissing contest between the two men tugging her in a 'Who does she love more' war.
The most impactful leading man is Ron Leibman, who as Rueben Warshowsky gives a knock-out performance. Rueben is a hardass, her pal, and never quit New York guy. His and Rae's professional relationship borders on the boundaries of friends and something more.
The second is Beau Bridges who plays her husband, Sonny Webster. Rae's and Webster's relationship was more pragmatic than anything romantic. On a date with all of their children in the woods, he suggests that their lives might be easier if they lived them together. There aren't many glitzy scenes of romance between them but a certain amount of mutual respect.
Between the three of them the movie just barely offers a possible love affair between Rae and Rueben, but never fully goes there. The movie doesn't go out of its way to show that Rae is her own woman and "can't be tamed". But, there isn't a curtain shadowing that behind every great woman is a man pulling all the strings. And their trio relationship never becomes a pissing contest between the two men tugging her in a 'Who does she love more' war.
MORE GOOD BITS: Director Martin Ritt keeps Norma Rae minimalist. It's not one of those overly optimistic or darkened films with that Hollywood message of "This is an INSPIRATIONAL movie!" Scenes where the characters are tested the most are not made melodramatic - though are sometimes greeted with those bizarre 1970s guitar melodies. The camera is just there, follows, and doesn't interfere with the actors.
One scene which really stands out for me takes place with Rueben. Under the law he has a right to check the mills bulletin boards to maintain that nobody has removed his union notices. Confronting the employeers, he's intimidatingly walked through the deafening, humid mill. They're anxious to throw him out, and are shoving him a long the way - especially when Rueben no bull****ingly introduces himself to the workers as he passes through. The camera never breaks away from him and his mission to check those bulletin boards.
Sally Field in so many scenes proves this is her film. She is headstrong, tenacious, straightfoward, humorous, strong, and witty all the way through. The scene video captured above is a particular stand out.
After her father has died of a heart-attack inside the mill, been under the scrutiny of her bosses for being a Union member, and suffered the silence of her co-workers who know of the union but do not join the cause, Rae is fired after copying down a letter on the bulletin board which pits Caucasian workers against African American workers. Refusing to leave her station Rae stands up on the table with a sign marked 'Union'. Field's face is so riddled with the the dedication, desperation, tpain her family has gone through to make this union work. Until this moment, workers had joined forces with the union and then bullied to leave for their own sake. Finally the mill goes quiet as they stand with her.
Bottom Line: In a powerful performance she knocks out of the park, it's hard not to really love Norma Rae and Sally Field.