...a deliberately-paced drama that grows more and more compelling as it unfolds...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 27, 2023

A bona-fide folk heroine.

| Aug 11, 2022

I can't get over how loud Norma Rae is...but that loudness is the point, as it underscores the working conditions of the overworked and underpaid laborers in the film.

| Jan 31, 2022

Best of all is Sally Field -- this may be her finest performance, the most exuberant and the most intelligent. She'll get an Academy nomination next year if there's any justice. Hyperbole aside: this is simply a good film.

| Nov 5, 2021

Rae's ordinariness lends to extraordinary onscreen entertainment.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jun 28, 2021

Norma Rae, the woman's story, is a beautiful film worth seeing.

| May 19, 2020

A good story told with a passionate feeling and a difficult simplicity. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 6, 2019

As a rule, the filmmakers manufacture fake climaxes every 10 or 15 minutes, poop out and lapse into forgetfulness, just as if they were structuring the material for television.

| Mar 4, 2019

It's a dear and corny story, played with lovable grubbiness by Sally Field and Ron Leibman, but it's not about what you think.

| Feb 6, 2018

While no flying nun, Sally Field is no less than heavenly as a wife and mother, organizing her fellow workers in a Southern textile factory.

| Jan 30, 2018

Based on the true story of a reluctant real-life heroine, this sincere drama with a social conscience makes its union cause authentic, heartfelt and grittily entertaining.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 6, 2017

At its heart, Norma Rae isn't a button-wearing union film as much as it is a character study of one woman who is pushed to the point of doing something spectacular.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 16, 2014

Inspiring pro-union story is good watch-together fare.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2012

Sally Field won her first Oscar playing union activist Norma Rae.

| Original Score: C+ | Feb 23, 2009

Photographed in murky yellows and browns by John Alonzo, this 1979 film is sluggish and vague, trivializing its subject in a wash of unearned sentimentality.

| Jan 11, 2008

Sally Field won her first Oscar for her performance in the title role, a complex portrayal of an working-class southern woman.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 11, 2008

Norma Rae is that rare entity, an intelligent film with heart.

| Jan 11, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 17, 2007

A beautifully made, splendidly acted film that more than achieves its aims.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 19, 2007

The closure is consistent and satisfying, standing in opposition to conventional Hollywood happy endings: Norma Rae and Jewish labor leader part as equals, with a respectful handshake rather than embrace or kiss; both have benefited from the friendship

| Original Score: A- | Sep 14, 2006