Norma Rae

Dir: Martin Ritt, 1979 (8.9*)

AFI 50 Heroes

Sally Fields won an Oscar for her most inspirational performance, playing a sewing factory worker in Alabama who helps organize a union against many detractors and expected backlash. Ron Leibman is an organizer who provides legal support, Beau Bridges is the distraught husband who feels ignored, but Martin Ritt (Hud, The Great White Hope) is the star who made this uplifting and inspiring but without sentimentality, and its based on a true story. Ritt himself was blacklisted and filmed the events as The Front, with Woody Allen in a dramatic role. There's a scene in the factory when she stands by herself that's one of the greatest in film history.