Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

gavin6942 A young single mother and textile worker (Sally Field) agrees to help unionize her mill despite the problems and dangers involved.The story is based on Crystal Lee Sutton's life as a textile worker in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, where the battle for the workers union took place against a J.P. Stevens Textiles mill. How much is true and how much is fiction, I have no idea. My suspicion is that the bulk is fiction, because the film is called "Norma Rae" and not "Crystal Lee".This film has to be the highlight of Martin Ritt's career. Not only does it have some nice awards (cementing Field's career), but it now sits in the Library of Congress. The only other Ritt film that comes close is "Hud" (1963).

vintkd Very social and clever movie about ordinary girl who tries to awake her sleepy town in order that to fight for their rights. I became interested this film because recently saw remarkable drama "Rosa" with Bette Midler. I learned that she was nominated on Oscar, but winner became Sally Field with "Norma Rae" and I'm urgently became search its. "Norma Rae" is very absorbing and dramatic story, I'm really very strongly worried for characters of this film and I'm deeply imbued their troubles, because similar problems are very actually today and touching many ordinary people in all the World. This film makes you wonder about many important for us things and I strongly recommend its for watching to everyone. Maybe this film will be unite us, maybe no, but some important and right things in your hearts will remain exactly. .

fred-houpt Oh gosh, some films do start to look a bit tired. I'm reviewing this after seeing it for the first time in 2012. To say that the film is a tad bit slow is being generous. The script is quite all right; it's just that Ritt seems to linger too long on each scene whereas he could have made the points in a tighter and more urgent manner. Think of what Clint Eastwood would have done with this material. The end credits to the film claim that this is a fiction and rightly it might be so. However, the not so subtle subtext is the labour situation in the deep south, which continues on to this day.I live in Ontario and I have seen recessions come and go and years back one of them saw a lot of furniture manufacturers close up shop and move to brand new facilities in the south. In states that had practically no union presence. The impression we had then was that expensive Canadian labour went south to much cheaper non-union labour in the south. There are still many factories in the United States that are under represented by unions. I am not advocating unions and the issue is broader than I need to refer to in a movie review.The poor and largely uneducated working folks of this southern town have no where else to go, no other local jobs open, certainly not for their skill sets. So, they feel obliged to take any work and the factory owners take full advantage of that fact. Comes a Jewish labour leader from New York, who just as slowly as the film plods on, finds it tough going to get any of the workers to come on board. Norma Rae actually is not the tipping point for his labour organizing. Not at first. A spontaneous stand taken by Norma, done with great contrast to her surrounding, in silence, by holding up a made up "union" sign, tips the balance. This type of battle took place all across the United States for as long as it ramped up its industrial foundations. There have always been too many unsafe work places where labourers are paid third world wages. There are many movies dedicated to just such a story. This is a good one but it suffers from dragging its feet in the soup.The actors are all good and the chemistry in particular between Sally Field and Ron Liebman quite fun to watch. Were this film not so long on the sweating and plot development I would have given it higher marks. Not great, but worth a viewing. Then: think again about the recent headlines of the terrible working conditions of workers producing Apple computer parts in China. So little changes.

John T. Ryan WHAT an unusual film! NORMA RAE (20th Century-Fox, 1979) is a totally studio created and produced movie! Even then, in 1979, this production is an anachronism in Tinsel Town where more, and more, the big studios became partners to independent producers and landlords to those same small production companies; who become willing tenants for the large studio sound stages, sets and back lots.IT has been said that we have 3 social classes in the United States of America; being The Upper Middle Class, the Middle Class and The Lower Middle Class. These terms are, of course euphemisms or rather Code Words; for after all, no American wants to admit that he is a member of any old "Working Class"!! I mean, that's just so 'Proletariat'APPARRENTLY 20th Century-Fox wasn't fearful of doing an American Working Class film; for they did so; not just once, but in two movies released very close to each other and later booked as a double bill. The other title is BREAKING AWAY (20th Century-Fox, 1979); which of course was about the four young friends, a year after high school, meandering through life aimlessly, doing nothing. (Yeah, Schultz, it's the movie with the bicycle race!) ORGANIZED Labor and the attempt to bring union representation to a textile company in the Southern U.S. is the story here. It brings us into contact with the lovely Miss Sally Field, portraying the heroine/protagonist, Norma Rae (Herself). Through several on the job incidents, such as the heart attack and death of her Father, Vernon (Pat Hingle); who is refused permission to leave the line when he experiences stroke/heart seizure type symptoms.WELL call me a softy, but that sure seems like a good reason to take up arms on behalf of having a union in a company.REPRESENTING the international union is organizer (often called 'agitator'), Reuben (Ron Leibman); who, being an outsider, has trouble getting locals to support or even consider the notion of having a representation election in the plant. When Norma starts her protest, he at last has an ally.THE story also deals with the attitudes of the local townspeople toward Miss Norma as the company's union busting campaign machinery gets rolling. Whereas Norma has a couple of kids, previous to her marriage to the loyal and most patient, ,Sonny (Jeff Bridges), she also has one who is illegitimate. Norma forewarns her children and tells them to be prepared to hear more lies. There was even, in the story, mention made of a rumor that Norma had made a Stag Movie with a Cop! (This we found to be most amusing and the biggest laugh in the roughly 2 hours on screen.) OTHER than the personal story of a young woman (Based on a real person involved in the long lasting J.P. Stevens Company's struggle to keep unions out of its domain. Unbelievable as it may sound, at one point J.P. Stevens Company was paying $1,000,000.00 per DAY in fines rather than even begin to allow a representation election.IN a general sense, NORMA RAE is all about the working class people in the U.S.A. and how they (us?) are viewed by the Liberal Press and by the Motion Picture Industry and the related Entertainment Industry. This brings us to what is most important to me in writing about the picture.NORMA is a member of that very Working Class and is not a very refined Lady. She has been around the block several times with regard to her relationship with men. (She was a woman who didn't have an enemy in the world; or as we used to say, "She's just like a door knob. Everyone gets a turn! ALL of that considered people in the Working or Blue Collar stratum in our country and world deserve decent treatment and should not be referred to as "Trailer Trash" and the like. It is indeed a study in hypocrisy that those same elitists would not dare call any Blacks of the same socio-economic rung of the ladder by any derogatory terms, yet express such contempt of people who are classified as being "White".NOTE: * Speaking of Awards, we wonder why no recording of the Oscar winning original song "It Goes Like It Goes" was ever released. For that matter, there was no NORMA RAE original soundtrack album, either. (And the score also claimed an Oscar for David Shire and Norma Gimbel. Hey 20th Century-Fox boss, Rupert Murdoch, it's not too late! POODLE SCHNITZ!! . '