Stanley Kauffmann

“[Ritt's] best strength is, as always, his work with actors. He is an experienced actor himself and it shows: remember Carol Burnett in Pete 'n' Tillie, Jon Voight in Conrack, Cicely Tyson in Sounder. Here Ron Leibman … gives his least self-centered performance, with the fullest concentration on the authentic moment….

“But the picture stands of falls with the performance of Norma Rae. It stands. Cheers--cheers from the heart--for Sally Field. I've never before found her even particularly engaging: a pooch-jawed girl who traded on scrawny sexiness and half-baked coy humor. Ritt saw more; confided in her; built her confidence; helped her, not to change but to find more of her self (I would guess) than she knew she had. We watch this sassy but dispirited, dissatisfied but resigned, beer-swilling, backseat-bumping Norma Rae move to a realization that what had been nagging and depressing her was the buried knowledge that she was better than her life. We watch her move to live her life better.

“Many, many moments make us cry, but one will surely be remembered best…. ["UNION" sign]”

Stanley Kauffmann
The New Republic, March 17, 1979
[NR whole rev.—also, fill in above (“union”)]