Norma Rae

Norma Rae (1979) is an American drama directed by Martin Ritt, available to watch online on iFILM. Sally Field plays a textile mill worker in the American South — long shifts, noise, dust, wages that barely cover rent — living the same life as her parents and everyone else in town, with no particular reason to think it will change.

Then a New York labour organiser named Rudy Danski — Ron Liebman — shows up at the mill. Norma is skeptical at first: unionising means risking her job, antagonising the owners, falling out with coworkers who don't want the trouble. But something shifts. What starts as someone else's cause becomes hers. The film is based on the real story of Crystal Lee Sutton, who organised workers at a Burlington Industries plant in North Carolina.

Field took the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the performance earns it. The scene where she stands on a loom holding a hand-lettered sign — silent, not moving — does more than any speech could. Stream Norma Rae (1979) online on iFILM.