American film director Martin Ritt started out as a Broadway actor. Ritt’s stage role as “Gleason” in Winged Victory brought him to Hollywood for the film version, for which the studio publicity billed him, along with the rest of the male cast, by the rank he held in the Army (Private First Class Martin Ritt). A victim of the Hollywood blacklist, Ritt’s career came to a standstill in the early 1950s. He reemerged, not as an actor, but as a director for the 1956 film Edge of the City. A favorite of actor Paul Newman, Ritt directed Newman in The Long Hot Summer (1958), Paris Blues (1961), Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man (1962), Hud (1963), The Outrage (1964) and Hombre (1967). Other Ritt-directed films of note were Pete ‘n’ Tillie (1972), Cross Creek (1984), Murphy’s Romance (1985), and, his last film, Stanley and Iris (1990). If there doesn’t seem to be a central throughline in these films it was because Ritt steadfastly refused to be typecast as a director. One project that brought… read more
A great flick about a strong woman who's made some mistakes (Field) finding her calling by organizing a union at the textile mill she works at. Very good performances by the three leads, and all around a fine example of Hollywood drama.
Sally Field is outstanding in this. As is Rob Liebman. Martin Ritt remains one of my favorite directors.
Sally is a powerhouse in this. Oscar and Cannes Best Actress winner. Quite deserving.
Also: Best of 2011 from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, In Review Online and more. And 11-year-old Scorsese’s storyboards.
When I think “labor movement,” two films that automatically come to mind for me are John Sayles’s fantastic Matewan and Norma Rae, which I’d never seen but had always heard was Sally Field’s masterwork… read review
