Sally Field: Playing it straight and for laughs

Sally Field in "Absence of Malice" in 1981.

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081974/characters/nm0000398/

(May be subject to copyright)

It sounds ridiculous saying it out loud. A brand new nun is so small, when she puts on her new habit, it catches a wind and makes her airborne. She learns to harness this and become – “the flying nun”.

During the early 1980s, Channel 7 aired reruns of “The Flying Nun”, and I would watch it every week day after school before supper.

It was also about that time that I saw “Smokey and the Bandit”.

Those are my earliest memories of Sally Field, who has had an amazing career right up until the present.

For almost a year, I have had the 1988 movie “Punchline” on my PVR, and I finally watched it earlier tonight.

It stars Tom Hanks and Sally Field, and just reminded me how prolific she was by the end of the ‘80s.

The early years
My earliest memory of Sally Field was those reruns of “The Flying Nun” after school on Channel 7. She played Sister Bertrille a nun at a convent in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Sh was seemingly able to solve any problem, with the assistance of other nuns and local playboy and casino owner Carlos Ramirez, played by Alejandro Rey.

Wikipedia reveals Sally Field had a prolific career in television in the early part of her career, appearing in “Gidget” from 1965 to 1966; the aforementioned “Flying Nun” from 1967 to 1970; and “The Girl With Something Extra” in 1973 and 1974. She was also in “Sybil” in 1976, playing a woman with multiple personality disorder. It was a TV movie for which she won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

Watching movies
When I was growing up, before the dawn of VHS, Beta, DVD, PVR or any other acronyms, there was only one way to watch old movies. If I missed them in the theatre, I had to hope they’d be on TV. After all, I often missed them given my isolation on the farm, or they played before I was born,

Back then, in the three channel universe, Channels 7, 9 and 13, played a lot of movies. Newer ones aired in prime time as events, while older ones played late at night or on weekend afternoons. Whenever they played, there was no way to see them as they were shown in the theatres. Instead, all movies were cut up to eliminate foul language, violence and sexually explicit content. This was in addition to inserting commercial breaks. Often content was cut to make room for commercials.

Sometimes it seemed the editors hadn’t seen the original movie, or just didn’t care, because the story no longer flowed or even made sense after their cuts. It made watching movies back then, a different experience. That was especially true when it meant seeing the actual story altered for no reason, or the rising action interrupted by a three-minute break.

It was in this environment that I saw Sally Field for the first time.

Pre-history
Looking back, I cannot believe I got into the theatre to see “Smokey and the Bandit”, when I was seven years old, back in 1977 – but I did. I loved that movie with Burt Reynolds cruising around in his black Trans Am, Jerry Reed driving his semi truck, and both being chased by Sheriff Buford T. Justice, played by Jackie Gleason. Sally Field, in her first major motion picture role, plays a runaway bride who jumps in the Trans Am. I loved that movie, especially the truck and this big mural it had painted on the side. I tried to replicate it in my art class.

That same year, 1977, Field appeared in “Heroes” opposite Henry Winkler, best known at the time for playing Fonzie in “Happy Days”. Field plays the girlfriend of Winkler, a Vietnam vet seeking out the other members of the unit he served in. I have an odd memory of this movie. We used to have this outhouse on the farm. I got really interested in old movies and TV. There was a bunch of old newspaper in that outhouse, so I started reading it. I came across some movie listings where the ads for movies were really just miniature versions of the movie posters hanging in the theatres. I saw an ad for “Heroes” and all I could think was, “Hey, that’s the Fonz.”

A year later, in 1978, she played opposite Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise in “The End”. It’s a story about a man, played by Reynolds, who is diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides to die by suicide on his own terms.

In 1979, Field teamed up with Reynolds again, this time in “Hooper”, where Reynolds plays professional stuntman Sonny Hooper, and Field is his love interest. I remember seeing the trailer for this movie while watching another movie in the theatre. A scene that sticks out in my mind has Hooper go crashing into this dining room and sliding down this long table. He comes to rest in front of this woman, who I believe was Sally Field. Everyone starts to clap for Hooper. The woman had grabbed her plate to save it from being spilled. In order to join in the applause, she places her plate on Hooper’s stomach and starts to clap. I thought it was pretty funny.

I only saw parts of “Heroes”, “The End”, and “Hooper” because the other thing about watching movies on TV back then, was my bed time came before the end of those movies.

One of the first movies I was allowed to watch until the end, past my bedtime on a Sunday night, was one of Sally Field’s first really serious roles – and one of her best.

Award winning
“Norma Rae” came out in 1979, and showcased Sally Field’s acting talents. She played Norma Rae Webster, a woman who goes to work in a factory in North Carolina. To combat poor working conditions, she helps try to unionize the factory. For her efforts, Field won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

“Norma Rae” was an excellent movie shining a light on an important issue. I am pretty sure I saw this movie at least a year later, and maybe more, putting it into the 1980s.

So, as the 1980s dawned, Sally Field not only had a prolific career on television, but established herself as a bonified actress on the silver screen.

The 1980s would bring more success and solidify that reputation.

Getting serious
The decade started with a sequel, “Smokey and the Bandit II” in 1980, which I also managed to see in the theatre. It was more of the same fun and hijinx with Field starring opposite Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed. Together again, they continued to fluster Jackie Gleason.

She would then appear in a little known romantic comedy in 1981 with Tommy Lee Jones called “Back Roads”, that I never heard of.

Her next film, I did not see until a few years after its release, but it was really good. It was called “Absence of Malice” and came out in 1981. Field got serious, playing a reporter who writes a story about a Miami businessman played by Paul Newman, she implicates in a murder. The businessman is innocent. The story revolves around the concept of “absence of malice” which tries to balance the public’s right to know with disclosing damaging information about a person.

My brother signed up for pay TV in the 1980s, which aired commercial-free movies. That was a big deal back then, and he used to tape movies off it. He would record them three to a tape, and periodically we’d borrow them. “Absence of Malice” was on one of those tapes.

Field would return to comedy in her next role, in “Kiss Me Goodbye” in 1982, opposite James Caan and Jeff Bridges. Caan plays the ghost of her deceased husband who returns to haunt her life when she plans to remarry a man played by Bridges.

Her next role would once again earn her an Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1984, she starred in “Places in the Heart” as a woman who takes over her Depression-era family farm after her husband dies.

Her next role was in 1985 with “Murphy’s Romance” starring opposite James Garner as two people who became friends and maybe more. She followed that up with another romance in 1987, opposite Michael Caine, in “Surrender”.

Then she got serious again, oddly, in a movie about comedy, the aforementioned “Punchline” in 1988. Field plays opposite Tom Hanks as two aspiring comedians. She was excellent as a wife and mother trying to balance the demands of trying to be a comedian with her family resposibilities.

She closed out the decade in 1989 with “Steel Magnolias”, a tear-jerker about a group of women who deal with the death of one of their own.

The years after
Sally Field just kept on doing great work in film and television right up to the present day. She was in great movies such as “Soapdish”; “Mrs. Doubtfire”; “Forrest Gump”; “The Amazing Spider-Man”; “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”; “Lincoln” for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; and most recently in “80 for Brady” last year.

She also has had several great performances on television including a recurring role on “ER” for which she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series; 109 episodes in the series “Brothers and Sister”, where she won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series; and nine episodes in the miniseries “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”.

Parting thoughts
What can you really say about Sally Field. She can play it serious or for laughs, and both are equally believable. She makes every movie she is in better, and really is just fun to watch.

What else needs to be said.