Hey — shoot me — I never saw this before. And, technically, I’m a member of a Union, a Guild and an Association. I know. I suck.
Listen — I know Norma Rae is a well-respected movie and I know that Sally Field’s performance was a hallmark of the women’s movement but I gotta call it like I see it: what a horrible script! I won’t take anything away from Field — she is very good and believable. It’s just the caravan of cliches that comes out of everyone’s mouth that makes me wanna puke. Worst is Ron Liebman as the New York Jew down in the Carolinas ready to love everyone to death. When he isn’t griping about the lack of Nathan’s Hot Dogs he’s ordering up a seltzer or waxing poetic for his summers under an open hydrant or Sunday mornings with the New York Times. He is a shanda of all times and he’s doing a lousy Pacino to boot!
The other big problem: the bosses Norma is fighting agains. Sure, they suck. . .but they don’t really suck. I kept waiting for some truly heinous act on their part. . .but it never came. You wanna see awful bosses, rent John Sayles’ “Matewan” or the early Barbara Kopple docs.
And, of course, in 2007, we can’t help but watch this and realize the finally victory rests not with the newly unionized workers. 25 years and all these Carolina mills will be in Indonesia or China. Maybe they’ll give this a new translation. Solidarity Forever indeed.
