Norma Rae (1979)

Norma Rae (1979)

Directed by Martin Ritt

Screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr.

Runtime: 1 hr, 50 min

In the United States, organized labor has become progressively weaker, with the percentage of union workers in the labor pool well within single digits.  Such was not always the case, however, as conflicts between employers and unions were ever present.  I would hazard that most of us would associate these struggles with the Industrial Revolution: the Pullman strike, the lead up to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, etc.  But these conflicts continued well beyond that, and Norma Rae is based on one such effort.

Norma Rae Webster, played by Sally Field, is an analogue of Crystal Lee Sutton, a woman who fought to unionize the local textile factory.  The film naturally takes liberties with the real life events but several pivotal scenes are faithfully reproduced.  Norma Rae is something of an anomaly in her Southern town.  She has agitated with management before, has been with multiple men and is even willing to challenge the authority of the local church.  Whereas most everyone else is willing to maintain the status quo, Norma Rae is liable to shake things up.

It is this feistiness that draws the attention of Reuben Warshowsky (Ron Leibman), a union organizer from New York.  He thinks that she’d be a perfect driving force to unionize the factory’s laborers.  Unfortunately, Reuben’s efforts tend to be met with hostility or apathy.  Norma’s father (John Calvin) calls Reuben a communist, and Reuben is dismayed that only seventeen people, out of a workforce of 800, showed up to one of the organization meetings.  Clearly, winning over textile workers is an uphill battle.

Many of the problems faced in Norma Rae can be attributed to a fear of the “other”.  Reuben jokes that he figured all Southern men would be like Ashleigh Wilkes, yet not one mill family will let him stay at their residence.  Not only is he a union agitator from the North, but also he’s Jewish; Norma Rae tells him that she’s never seen a Jew in her life.  And unsurprisingly, race gets involved.  Norma Rae’s husband Sonny (Beau Bridges) is shocked that black men are in their house for a union meeting, and management plays on the white workers fears to disrupt the organizational process.

Yet Norma Rae and Reuben soldier on, and their actors make their struggles both gripping and human.  Sally Field has the spunk that her character needs, but all the stress in her life—the family and the union both need her attention, not to mention the whole textile worker thing—gradually build and wear on her, to the point where her mental health may be shaky.  Leibman, who for some reason reminds me of Cosmo Kramer, is both jovial and demanding, a wisecracker who is, make no mistake about it, on a mission.  And appropriately, his whole demeanor differs drastically from the rest of the town’s.

What Norma Rae and Reuben are up against is also well done, in that it actually isn’t done all that much.  There is no single villain in Norma Rae.  Yes, there’s the textile mill’s owners and management, but they’re not in the film that much, and when they are they tend to be shown all at once, so that no one character shines through.  The antagonist, then, is a force, something which drives a great many people against the union’s cause.  How exactly does one fight a force?  It sure as hell would be easier for them if the big bad were one evil dude.

The lack of this antagonistic person(s) does result in a film which seems to eschew some narrative elements.  There isn’t any moment where the heroes’ hopes appear shattered for any length of time—if there’s no one to overcome, then any setbacks can more easily be shrugged off as the norm.  I attribute part of this to some pacing issues.  Norma Rae gets arrested at one point and she tells her children that her name may be dragged through the mud.  Nothing really comes of this however, as the film just skips to the vote to unionize the factory.  An actual antagonist may have resulted in more focused obstacles and resolutions.

However, Norma Rae compensates this problem with a thoroughly oppressive atmosphere which is established almost immediately.  The pounding of machinery in the factory makes it difficult for people to hear and can easily induce temporary deafness.  Add on the pressure for workers to speed up their labors and continue to work despite any pain or numbness, and the result is a living hell within the factory walls.  In fact, this chaotic atmosphere is done so well that one would buy the total silence of the floor during a demonstration as something well worth celebrating.

Norma Rae itself is something worth celebrating.  Set aside whether unionization is actually beneficial for a second, because this film ultimately isn’t about that.  It’s not even about going up against some faceless concrete authority.  It’s a simple film about taking a stand for one’s beliefs and refusing to stand down.  Granted, to be in that position may mean the surrender of one’s reason momentarily, but it is still a powerful portrait of a woman with a goal, and by God she will not give up until that goal is reached.