Norma Rae

A film set in the American south. Norma works at a textile mill. So does her mother, so does her father; there is no other work in the town. The noise is high, the dust is thick and the shifts are long. One day a man comes from New York. Reuben is a union organiser; he hands out leaflets outside the mill and nobody takes him seriously. Norma is not interested at first. Then, thinking about her mother's hearing and her own children's future, she starts talking to him. From there the film is about organising. Finding a place to meet, collecting signatures, not knowing who can be trusted, pressure from management, and the talk in the neighbourhood. The mill moves against them. Norma's shift is changed, division is set between the workers, and her husband wants her to give it up. The best-known scene takes place in the middle of the floor: she writes one word on a piece of card and climbs onto a table, and the machines fall silent one by one. What the narrative is interested in is not heroism but cost: for doing this Norma loses her job, her peace and, for a time, her family. The source is real. A worker named Crystal Lee Sutton carried on a similar fight in North Carolina in the 1970s. Sally Field plays Norma and won an Academy Award for it. Ron Leibman and Beau Bridges are in the cast. Martin Ritt directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes stories of labour struggle and American cinema of the 1970s. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action; the film moves slowly and keeps even its victory small.