Norma Rae (1979, 110 min.)
Written by Harriet Frank Jr. & Irving Ravetch. Directed by Martin Ritt

Norma Rae, Justice, and the Downfall of Unjust Gods
By Karen Merced Willner

God rises in the divine council, gives judgment in the midst of the gods.“How long will you judge unjustly and favor the cause of the wicked? Defend the lowly and fatherless; render justice to the afflicted and needy. Rescue the lowly and poor; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
Psalm 82 – The Downfall of Unjust Gods, I.  Verses 1-4

Norma Rae:  “I want this church for a union meeting next Saturday afternoon.  That’s blacks and whites sittin’ together.”
Pastor:  “This is a house of God!”
Norma Rae:  “That's what I’m waiting to see, whether it is or whether it isn't… I've come here and said I’ve sinned and I done wrong and I’m sorry and I asked for God to forgive me.  Now I wanna see what this church stands for.  I wanna see if you'll stand up in that pulpit and say there oughta be justice, there oughta be a union ...” 
Dialog from Norma Rae

The story of Norma Rae is not simply the story of a back country union organizer; it is not solely the story of the struggles of the working poor.  It is a powerful and far-reaching meditation: on the pursuit of justice in the face of false and unjust gods, on the destructiveness of racism and class stratification, and on the price women pay as they struggle to ascend to their rightful positions of power and self determination.  Thus, several important parallels can be drawn as we revisit Norma Rae. There are the continuing perils confronted by women’s ongoing efforts toward justice through independence and parity.  This is a journey exemplified by the known life and persistent mystique of Mary Magdalene.  Another parallel is the very personal battle for justice fought by Norma Rae’s director, Martin Ritt, who was blacklisted in the 1950s.  Finally there is the commitment to social justice activism that is a primary principle inherent in Christianity’s legacy as a Jewish descendent. 

Norma Rae, Mary Magdalene, and the unjust god of paternalism
Scriptural references to Mary of Magdala, few as they may be, have through the ages left her subject to wildly disparate conjecture about her character and her life.  Speculation about her has swung from the nadir of her  traditional portrayal as a reformed prostitute to the zenith of her revisionist portrayal as primary apostle to Christ – even touted in popular heresy as  His spouse, or, most outrageously, as His co-messiah.  Though recorded in the Gospels not only as witness to both His death and His resurrection, but as a  woman of means substantial enough to underwrite His ministry, Mary has been alternately vilified, venerated, slandered and canonized.  The ancient and persistent antipathy of male dominated establishments – in and out of religious communities – toward Mary Magdalene can arguably be defined as a deep fear of the challenge to traditional authority which she represents.  Even The Da Vinci Code, spurring as it did the recent renewed interest in her story, focused on the legends of her as a dutiful help-mate and mother rather than the more scripturally supportable role she might have played as apostle and benefactor. 

In Norma Rae, a critical and box office success based on the true story of Virginia union organizer Crystal Lee Sutton, Sally Field delivers an astonishingly authentic performance that won her an Oscar®.  She plays an unsophisticated Southern woman who, like Mary Magdalene, is a witness.  Norma Rae is a witness to the unrelenting toll that extreme factory working conditions take on her parents and coworkers.  Norma Rae is sparsely educated and perfunctorily promiscuous.  But she has two children and it is in the name of those children, and her desperate need to secure a just and better world for them, that she enters into her risky campaign to establish a union.   As the title character progresses from a single voice bringing random complaints about unfair policies to a strident activist with a union behind her, it is clear that the deeply-rooted male establishment in her small town is appalled at the idea of a woman – particularly a young, outspoken and sexually frank woman - presuming to assume a role of leadership in their midst.  Also like Mary Magdalene, Norma Rae finds herself vilified and slandered when the male power structure proclaims her past sins – real and imagined – in order to discredit her. 

Norma Rae experiences veneration and canonization as well, put on a precarious pedestal by the men in her life.  They elevate her to an unrealistic status as superwoman.  Sonny, her amiable new husband (Beau Bridges) expects that her union activities and work schedule will not interfere with her washing and the cooking chores at home; Reuben, the intense East Coast union organizer who becomes her mentor (Ron Leibman) expects that whatever other demands her life makes she will also be able to give full commitment to evangelizing for their secular ministry.  This is canonization via imposed martyrdom, that unwitting total sacrifice which is a disturbing reality in modern, post-feminist societies.  No matter how much a woman may take on in her spiritual or professional life, the expectation of her continued role as primary caregiver in her household does not diminish.  In addition to enduring bitter confrontations with management, clergy, and the law, Norma Rae must battle the stereotypical ideals of womanhood held by her male partners. 

Martin Ritt and the late, great unjust gods of Hollywood
Martin Ritt (1914-1990) was one of the most successful and acclaimed film directors working in the latter 20th century.  He specialized in motion pictures of intense humanity:  comedy-dramas such as The Front and Murphy’s Romance; socially relevant character studies such as Edge of the City, Sounder and Norma Rae.  Ritt started out as a stage and television director in New York, but before long was subpoenaed to testify against suspected Communists.  Ritt refused to become an informer and was banned from work for several years. 

The blacklist was a post-World War II phenomenon precipitated by investigations into Communist influence on the film industry conducted by the Un-American Activities Committee of the US House of Representatives (HUAC).  Though the committee was originally formed in the 1930s to investigate Nazi activities, its focus was quickly redirected to the US Communist party.  Communist affiliation was not illegal – an open exchange of political ideas is protected under First Amendment assurances of free speech and assembly.  No treasonous acts by film industry Communists were ever documented. Despite this, Hollywood studio heads were pressured by the Committee to expunge anyone suspected of Communist sympathies whether proven or merely speculated.

Many victims of this purge were current or former Communist party members, many were their family members and friends who, like Ritt, refused to inform, and many were simply social activists committed to causes of which powerful leaders in government did not approve.  Some historians claim that the blacklist disproportionately targeted Blacks and Jews.  Unions and civil rights organizations were considered Communist fronts and their supporters blacklisted by the studios and/or harassed by the FBI.

By the early 60s the blacklist was over, but countless ruined careers never recovered and those who cooperated with and testified before the HUAC were shunned by their peers for the rest of their lives.  Martin Ritt was one of the lucky ones.  He revived his career thanks to producer David Susskind, who was among the first to defy the blacklist by hiring Ritt to direct Edge of the City in 1956.   

At the turning point of Norma Rae, an iconic cinematic image is created when Norma Rae, exhausted and terrified by the threats and abuses of management, stands defiantly on a table in the middle of the vast work room and slowly rotates with a hand-written sign declaring UNION held over her head.  This incident actually happened:  Crystal Lee Sutton stood on a table and held up her UNION sign until the police came to take her away.  It is easy to imagine why such a story, with its moral imperatives to “justice for all” and defiance of unjust authority, would appeal to Martin Ritt.  As he stood up and risked everything for principle, as he refused to back down no matter the cost, thus did Crystal Lee and Norma Rae. 

Social activism and the Jewish heritage
Some might point to the character of Reuben, the East Coast Jew who comes to town to organize a union, and call him a stereotype.  In a way, he is, but an unavoidable one, owing to the well documented and historic commitment of the Jewish people to activism in the cause of social justice. 

The obligation to leave the world better than one finds it is a Jewish construct.  In the Mishnah, part of the Talmud and the first written compilation of the ancient Oral Law, it is written that the world rests on three things: Torah, avodah (worship), and gemilut khasadim- acts of loving kindness.  Among such acts is a special category called Tzedakah: charity as part of the process of seeking a just world.  Tzedakah has its roots in the Hebrew word tzedek (justice).  In the Torah, Jews are ordered, “Tzedek, tzedek, tirdof,” - “Justice, justice thou shalt pursue.”  This commandment to pursue justice is evident in the life and teachings of Jesus - an observant Jewish man - and it is manifested repeatedly in Jewish activism at the forefront of important social movements, such as civil rights and unionism.  The Christian mandate to social justice is inherited from the Jewish foundation upon which Jesus built. 

Consequently it is appropriate that into the insular small town environment so vividly laid before us in the Norma Rae narrative comes a lone Jewish man seeking to bind workers into a community.  He is a “fisher of men,” and he is ultimately successful because of the conversion of a woman. 

Norma Rae’s plot makes much of the townspeople’s aversion to, yet fascination with, the first Jewish person they have ever met.  Reuben patiently accommodates their ignorance, except for one instance when a factory manager taunts him with a repugnant racial slur.  Nothing, not even friction with his own organization, deters him from the pursuit of justice for an often unappreciative and resistant flock.   

At the end of the film, the union is established and for the first time in their lives the workers - blacks and whites, men and women - have power over their own destinies.  Norma Rae secures a better future for her children.  She and Reuben must part as he moves on to the next challenge, and the palpable love between them remains unfulfilled.  Yet it is evident that his influence will continue to inspire her. 

Before he leaves, Reuben assures Norma Rae that she has accomplished a mitzvah – a good work.  Indeed, thanks to the extraordinary courage and persistence of this small, unlikely woman, there is a small, unlikely corner of the world where the unjust gods are vanquished and justice, blessed tzedek, prevails for all. 

Karen Merced Willner is an instructor in film appreciation topics for Saddleback College and moderator for the monthly film series at the Bowers Museum, an international cultural history museum located in Santa Ana California. Karen has served on several juries at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California and was a member of the Ecumenical Jury at this year’s Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. 

Panelists: Monica Ganas, Dr. Thom Parham, Rev. Alexia Salvatierra