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| Norma Rae | 
 enlarge | Actors: Barbara Baxley, Beau Bridges, Robert Broyles, John Calvin, Booth Colman
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $4.48
You Save: $5.50 (55%)
New (37) Used (24) from $4.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 9263
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 118
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: FOXD2239748D
UPC: 245430137470
EAN: 0024543013747
ASIN: B000059HAN
Theatrical Release Date: 1979
Release Date: April 17, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Norma Rae March 23, 2007
The DVD arrived in excellent condition. Have been away and have not had time to view it yet.
One of the Best March 8, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This film is immense. The power of one person to move the hearts and souls of others is incredible. Sally Field is the consumate actor. This is the type of story that brings you into the cause right along with the rest of the cast.
One can only hope that this film gets the gift of re-release for it's 30th anniversary.
A must see for all people, all ages. The constant reminder to stand up for your beliefs to bring about change.
Union! Union! Union! December 6, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you love great acting, memorable dialogue, unforgettable scenes that stay with you since the 1979 movie debut, and if you adore socially conscious films where the underdog outwits the oppressor, then Norma Rae is the film to return to.
Based on a true story about a Southern textile mill and attempts by a northern union organizer to form the first union, Norma Rae is fiction, not fact. Sally Field (b. 1946) as Norma Rae won a well-deserved Oscar in her embittered battle against hardnosed union management who turned a blind eye to the legitimate complaints of their long-suffering workers: excruciatingly high noise levels which deafened some employees, cotton fibers at the mill which caused lung disease, and scant wages barely higher than a sweat shop's for backbreaking work that literally killed some of the mill's loyal employees.
Management didn't care. After all, they were the only company in town. But Sally Field, egged on and smitten by a union representative from New York, brilliantly and subtly played by Ron Leibman (b. 1937), was a pawn in his hand. Had she not met Leibman it is doubtful that she would have risen to power in the never-named southern factory, which is really the famous J.P.Stevens out of North Carolina. The movie was filmed in Alabama.
The delightful culture and sense of place of the South is evoked, including choirsinging in churches, fire & brimstone preachers, and baking of delicious pies. Since I'd seen the film when it first came out, I was awaiting my favorite moment, one of the great moments in all of moviedom: the suspensful climax where Field climbs up on the table holding out a sign reading Union and turns round and round until each employee shuts off the deafening machine he or she is working at.
A viewer can't ask for anything as tearjerkingly emotional as that!
Field's character, with poor self-respect and children by different men, evolves into a character with dignity, thanks to her platonic relationship with Leibman. When her husband asks, "Are you sleeping with him?" she utters the classic lines, "No, but he's in my mind." That happily clinches the relationship for Field and her husband, endearingly played by Beau Bridges (b. 1941 and son of Sea-Hunt Lloyd) and he vows to love Sally all the more.
Feisty, fervent, and flamboyant describe our riveting heroine, a true joy to behold, with her skinny sexy body that, to me, anyway, seems to long for her Jewish mentor and teacher, Leibman, the man who has opened her eyes to the larger world of culture, books and catching your dreams. For him, she begins reading one of his favorite poets, Dylan Thomas. He's had the power to change this plain woman with poor morals into a strong outspoken survivor.
Is Leibman just using her to get the union started? No,they part with genuine respect for one another, sealed by a handshake. An earlier scene shows them taking a delightful skinnydip together. Leibman is always a calm force to Field's tempestuous behavior.
However, it may be that socially conscious director Martin Ritt (1914-1990) blacklisted during the McCarthy era, just may have been using the real Norma Rae - Crystal Lee Sutton - since she didn't receive a cent from the film. However, Crystal states in later interviews she enjoyed the film and the attention.
In a memorable line, Leibman asks, "Why is it all you southerners have three names?"
Watch the movie to experience the thrill of defiance and winning. Watch it to root for Sally Field to take on the establishment and, glory be, to win!
Pedagogy of the Oppressed in Norma Rae October 7, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
While watching Reuben interact with the factory workers, I am reminded of a resounding theme backed by a specific paragraph from Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. On page 65 Freire states that "attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects which must be saved from a burning building." This thought is also reinforced on page 94 with the excerpt from the Selected Works of Mao-Tse-Tung, Vol. III. It states that "All work done for the masses must start from their needs and not from the desire of any individual, however well-intentioned.... There are two principles here: one is the actual needs of the masses rather than what we fancy they need, and the other is the wishes of the masses, who must make up their own minds instead of our making their minds for them."
It was very clear that the factory workers (masses) needed a change. The working environment was hazardous to their daily health, the pay was horrendous and the treatment was detrimental to people's spirits. However, this is the view of the "liberator" and not of the oppressed. A significant portion of the factory workers (as demonstrated by the vote) were not yet conscious of their needs and not yet willing to make the change. This was true for the majority of the workers at the beginning of the movie. While Reuben managed to change some of their minds, it was not done through dialogue. I never once felt that Reuben trusted in the factory worker's ability to reason and to come to this decision (the need for a union) on their own. To me, Reuben always prescribed to the banking concept of education. He deposited information (in the forms of speeches and leaflets) and expected the factory workers to accept it as truth and to follow along.
The funny thing is, this is not done out of malice. I do believe that his intentions were sincere but like many individuals who feel the need to "liberate" the oppressed, they subconsciously see a cause and not actual people.
"NORMA RAE" (1979) starring Sally Fields March 19, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This film is definitely one of Sally Fields' best. Sally portrays Norma Rae, a machine operator and union organizer, in a southern cotton processing facility. Every worker in America should see this film and be inspired by it, especially during the times we're living in. After surviving all kinds of coercive measures from the bosses and their allies in the local police, Norma manages to prevail through courage and the lone but persevering support of an outside union organizing official. Her dream of organizing the factory worker in a union, that truly represents their rights finally comes true.
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