In the climactic scene of Martin Ritt’s 1979 drama Norma Rae, Sally Field’s character climbs onto a cutting table in a textile mill, writes “UNION” in marker on a scrap of cardboard, and holds up the makeshift sign in silence. For 38 seconds — an eternity in film time — her co-workers just stare at her, not knowing what to do. Finally, one worker turns off her noisy machine. Then, slowly, one by one, the rest follow suit.
Crystal Lee Sutton, the mill worker Field was playing, really was fired, won her job back by court order, and spent years touring the country to further the boycott that resulted in J.P. Stevens signing a union contract in 1980, a year after the film dramatized it.
