Hollywood is going through a historic period, recently seeing both the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America simultaneously striking. Now that the WGA has secured a historic deal after 148 days of striking, securing gains in residual pay, health insurance, safeguards against AI, and access to accurate streaming data, change is in the air. A deal still awaits those on strike with SAG, but the gains made by the WGA’s members thus far are promising. These strikes represent an important movement, and as more films and television shows are pushed back or taken off of the release calendar entirely, it’s become evident the important role that these artists play in the industry. Hollywood has actually produced several compelling films about standing up to corrupt corporate owners thanks to classics like Harlan County, USA, and Silkwood. However, 1979’s Norma Rae wasn’t just a great film about the importance of respecting workers; it remains an incendiary and timely reminder that leaders of these consequential movements can be the most surprising people.
What Is ‘Norma Rae’ About?
Director Martin Ritt of The Long, Hot Summer and The Front fame was tackling a relatively recent news story with his 1979 film Norma Rae. The film was loosely based on the life of Crystal Lee Sutton, a union organizer and worker’s rights activist who had been fired from her job at a J.P. Stevens plant for her insubordination and the development of a strike against the plant’s owners. It was a topic that was top of mind to many audiences in 1979, as similar movements had been occurring throughout the nation as workers realized that banding together and unionizing was an effective means of demanding a response. Norma Rae isn’t trying to be a definitive film about the entire movement, but rather a specific example of what one small town’s crisis would look like.
Sally Field stars in the titular role as Norma, a cotton mill worker who has seen firsthand the dehumanizing working conditions that her fellow employees are dealing with. Norma has already gone through a couple of husbands and is raising two children on her own, and the wages she’s been making can hardly afford to give her family any breathing room, much less spend any meaningful time with any of them. To make things even worse, the hazardous working environment that Norma spends the majority of her day in is highly dangerous; Ritt calls attention to the additional medical expenses that Norma and her fellow workers have to deal with on top of the stress that the grueling manual labor requires. Field captures the essence of a woman who holds on to her independence like a shield, but knows that just sitting back and letting things play out will never end up being an effective strategy. It’s a phenomenal depiction of what it’s like to reach a breaking point; Field deservedly took home the Academy Award for Best Actress for her emotional performance.
Martin Ritt is keen to show the ways in which fellow workers are pitted against each other in competitive scenarios. Norma begrudgingly takes on a promotion to the role of a “spot checker,” in which she has to observe other employees’ performances and ensure that they’re reaching their quotas. It’s a role that essentially requires her to be a bully, something she doesn’t want to be, but it’s the only chance she’ll get to make more money. Field shows the heartbreaking nature of this scenario; can she really expect to spy on the people she works hand in hand with every day, even if it means helping give her family more of a buffer? Screenwriters Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. utilize these ethical dilemmas as the origin story for the most unlikely hero imaginable.
Why Is ‘Norma Rae’ an Important Film?
The best aspect of Norma Rae is the realistic depiction of a single working mother that Field crafts; Norma doesn’t take crap from anyone, often has multiple affairs with different men, and enjoys drinking and partying as a result of her loneliness. Norma doesn’t consider herself to be a leader in any way, but it’s the charisma of her personality that gets others to join her. Norma has a breakthrough moment when she meets with the New York union organizer Reuben Warshowsky (Ron Liebman), and listens to him give an impassioned speech about the power of banding together. Norma realizes that those involved with the movement aren’t political radicals, but simply normal people like her; this inspires her to start a movement from inside her own employer’s factory to strike.
Norma Rae shows the social element of striking that comes from disenfranchised workers dealing with the same issues are inspired to work together; in Norma’s case, it offers her a potential romance when her former co-worker Sonny Webster (Beau Bridges) admits his shared frustration with the company, and the two begin dating and ultimately wed. This romantic element is what makes the film so compelling on a dramatic level, but it’s also an effective tool in showing the long-lasting ramifications of poor conditions. The strike sends such wavelengths throughout their small-town community in North Carolina that Norma becomes a fixation of the local press; it’s as if she’s a pseudo-celebrity of sorts. Field’s refusal to change her feisty attitude for the cameras is only one of the reasons that she’s so charismatic throughout; this is the role that established her as an icon, and why she still inspires audience attention today with everything from 80 For Brady to Hello, My Name Is Doris.
Norma Rae is one of the best movies of the 1970s, and a high water mark within the development of the New Hollywood era. While much of the film’s success is due to the way that it captured a specific era in America’s history, it offers many lessons about the nature of organized movements that are still relevant to today’s strikers. The leaders within these movements don’t have to be someone famous; they just need to be as honest and straightforward in their approach as Norma.
