Director Martin Ritt's last important film is typical of his best work. 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. Determinedly shedding her image as a perennially cute, bubbly comedian, Sally Field deservedly won her first Oscar for her committed performance here. She's the widowed Southern textile worker who nervously allies herself with New York labour organiser Ron Leibman to fight appalling conditions and, with growing gumption, takes on the mill owners. There are fine performances all round, including Beau Bridges as her boorish man, but it's Field's triumph.

Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.