Set in the industrial South and based on a true story, Martin Rittas NORMA RAE is a moving portrait of a womanA?s fight to improve both her own life and the deplorable conditions that exist in the mill where she works. Norma Rae (Sally Field) has worked at the textile mill for years, but when a union organizer from New York comes to town, Norma takes on the hostility of the millA?s management and the apathy of her coworkers to try to unionize the mill.

Field plays Norma Rae as a passionate woman who realizes her own potential and her need to rebel against the status quo. She is also infuriated by the conditions at the mill. When Norma, uneducated and poor, finally expresses her disgust with life at the mill, it is an electrifying moment, and Field radiates this energy for the rest of the film, providing an emotional core and drive that gives the picture its power.

Directed by
Martin Ritt

Cast
Sally Field - Norma Rae
Beau Bridges - Sonny
Ron Leibman - Reuben
Pat Hingle - Vernon
Barbara Baxley - Leona
Gail Strickland - Bonnie Mae
Morgan Paull - Wayne Billings
Robert Broyles - Sam Bolen
John Calvin - Ellis Harper

Production Co.
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Produced by
Tamara Asseyev
Alexandra Rose
Alex Rose

Studio
20th Century Fox

Writer
Harriet Frank Jr.
Irving Ravetch

Music
David Shire