Norma Rae | Barbara Baxley, Beau Bridges

Norma Rae | Barbara Baxley, Beau Bridges | Sally Proves Her Acting Abilities

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Norma Rae

	Norma Rae Barbara Baxley, Beau Bridges 20th Century Fox, 2001 average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Power to the People

This is a great movie. For several reasons. Let me tell you one of them. The undercurrent is not homeric or heroic, it's about leadership.

I teach a course in Leadership at a local college. One of the Chapters is about Women as Leaders. Well, we're kind of off in a fantasy world here if we try to use props. And the chasm beteen what we see on the screen and the real world, fantasy and application, is wide, enormous and scary.

So this is not about Vin Diesel saving the world with his enormous biceps, nor Arnold with giant pecs protecting women and children. Nor is it a braless Signourney Weaver in a tee shirt and two machine guns on her hips blowing up aliens.

This is about one of us in the body of a short, cute, 90 pound woman, uneducated, riddled with human flaw, inspired by her antithesis, a highly educated jewish labor organizer, to stand up and like Tommy Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics, raise her fist in defiance of the machine.

And, Sally Field does give the performanvce of a lifetime with all the nuances of an uneducated person sensing the right thing but lacking the tools with which to do it.

There's a scene where she has to sign her name and she stares at the paper and purses her tongue and bites her lip in concentration. Small affectation. Brilliant. She got the Oscar and I think we laughed at her. She's Gidget for God's sake. The Flying Nun. It's even funnier than if Goldie Hawn won it. But here's the final answer: She deserved it.

You know what the plot's about. This Alabama about 20 years after Brown v. Board of Education, 10 years after The Heart of Atlanta decison, and 6 or 7 years after the Civil Rights killings. So it's not a safe venue for change. And Ron Liebman as the organizer Reuben has one thing going for him, he's not black. But everything else about him is what many southerners at that time hated. He's jewish, he's "a left-o," he's educated, he's from New Yawk. And somehow, the factory worker Norma Rae is drawn to him. I think she loves him and he her, but not that way. He changes her life, and she can never return. She has become a leader, with vision, communication, and patience. Hell. At the end she's reading Dylan Thomas. See the movie. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury

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Sally Proves Her Acting Abilities

Norma Rae put Sally Field on the map. Although she stunned television audiences a few years earlier with the Emmy winning performance in Sybil, most still thought of her as either Sister Bertrille from The Flying Nun or TV's Gidget.

Based on a true story, Norma Rae is a single mother of two, not all in wedlock. She lives at home with mother (Barbara Baxley) and father (Pat Hingle). She works at the OP Henley textile mill. She is having an affair with a married man.

Into her life comes two very different men. First is Ruben Kincaid (Ron Leibman), a Jewish union organizer from New York. Ruben wants to organize the textile mill but needs to get an in at the factory. The second is Sonny Webster (Beau Bridges), another mill worker. Sonny takes a shining to Norma and starts to date her. After a while, they get married and they combine their three kids together.

Ruben is looking for that one person to get him in with the workers. He sees that Norma is a bit of rebel and also cares for her coworkers. This is the woman he needs. After a few meetings and seeing Ruben take on the bosses, she signs on. She works tirelessly for the union. It starts to become her entire life and almost ends her marriage.

The mill turns up the heat with threats of shift cuts and scares off the workers from the union meetings. That is until Norma Rae's father dies after a supervisor refuses to let him off when he was feeling bad. But the mill puts up a racist notice which prompts the film's famous scene. Norma Rae writes down what is on the notice and management tries to stop her. She gets up on a table and writes UNION of a piece of cardboard. She holds it up and one by one the workers shut off their machines. Then she is dragged of by the police. This leads to what a friend called Sally's Oscar scene where she sits down with her kids and explains their parentage. (No dry eyes here).

The factory holds the union vote and the union is approved.

Sally Field deservedly won the Oscar and set her career on fire. But you also have to give a big round to the supporting cast. Pat Hingle as her father gives a the performance of his career. Barbara Baxley showed her versatility in this role. In Nashville she played a flamboyant diva. In Norma Rae, she plays a woman beaten down by her life and just wants a life where she is not noticed. Gail Strickland plays Norma's best friend. This is a role that she will perfect over the next few years. And finally, Beau Bridges once again shows that he is a great actor.

Director Martin Ritt will team up with Sally two more times. The next year in Back Roads which was a mild miss and then ten years later with Murphy's Romance which was another home run.

DVD EXTRA: Backstory: Norma Rae - When AMC decided to launch an informational series about making of films that made a difference, their first episode was on Norma Rae. This is the 24 minute show featuring interviews with Ron Leibman, producer Tamara Asseyev, agent Michael Ovitz, Sally Field and cinematographer John Alonzo.

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Fantastic Performance by Sally Field

This film was released when I was very young. I remembered hearing all about it but never watched it until now. Sally Field's Oscar win was well deserved.

Unfortunately, the current industrial situation in the US has put a major damper on the feel good ending of this movie. There are almost no textile mills in the US now. It is sad watching Norma Rae live thru this incredible struggle only to know that in 10 to 15 years it will no longer matter.

As well as being about labor unions, this movie is also a love story. Sally Field has wonderful chemistry with her two male costars, Ron Liebman and Beau Bridges. Both of their characters fall in love with Norma and throughout the movie they fight for her attention. Bridges pulls out all the stops and proposes. Liebman's Reuben tells fantastic stories about his Union Job, life in the big city and is generally exciting, almost enticing Norma to leave her small town life. Liebman is great as Reuben and he embodies NY cool to the nth degree. He makes Reuben stand out like a peacock in the small town and Norma is fascinated by him. In one great scene, Liebman enters a local bar where Field and Bridges are on their first date. Field's Norma immediately becomes Flirty, flighty and giggly over the appearance of her NY crush. As Liebman turns on the charm, Bridges fades into the background, his face falling to the floor in defeat. My heart went out to Bridges' character and it reminded me of all the times I was in the same situation.

But this film is owned heart and soul by Sally Field. From the time she fights for her Mother's health to when she stands up with her Union sign, I was cheering for her.

I just wish the film was longer because I wanted to find out what Norma's next adventure would be.

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An excellent movie.

This was a good DVD to see. It's a shame that they don't make movies like this anymore. I liked this movie a lot. 5 stars for Norma Rae.

A textbook example of how to organize in your workplace!!

I finally got the chance to watch this movie after missing out for almost 20 years. I should have watched this film years ago. Not only is Sally Field's acting great, but the screenplay was just as great as well. My only problem was the length of the movie as I thought 20 minutes could have been chopped off. With that said, this movie should be mandatory watching for all workers. If you care about the conditions in your workplace, watch it and learn how to organize your workplace!! It's a film much needed for required viewing in our society today!

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6

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