Main Cast: Lola Weixel, Wanita Allen, Gladys Belcher, Lyn Childs
Release Year: 1980
Country: US
Run Time: 65 minutes
Plot
The manpower shortage of World War II necessitated the entry into the workplace of millions of women, many of whom had previously been denied employment on the basis of their gender. Because most of these women took jobs in defense plants, they were given the en masse nickname "Rosie the Riveter" (remember that classic Norman Rockwell painting?) The 60-minute documentary The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter combines black and white newsreel footage with color-filmed interviews of five "Rosies": Wanita Allen, Gladys Belcher, Lyn Childs, Lola Weixel and Margaret Wright. Disinclined to parrot the wartime propaganda concerning female defense workers, these women tell it like it was: harassment, discrimination, the whole shooting match. Despite any and all deprivations, the "Rosies" remain proud of their wartime accomplishments, both immediate and long-ranging. Since its original release in 1980, The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter has become a perennial attraction during local Public Television telethons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Tapping into America's political, social, and cultural history in a way that's both compelling and unpretentious, this documentary takes a long overdue look at an important American phenomenon of World War II, and it wraps up its well-told story in a breezy 65 minutes. As men were drafted overseas during the war, women entered America's industrial workforce, a crucial (if accidental and temporary) step forward in gender equality. Along with newsreels of female laborers hard at work in 1940s war plants, director Connie Field talks to several "Rosies," whose attitudes range from resignation to bitterness. Many women wanted to stay in industrial work, but few found such jobs open to them after the war. Yet all of them know that they were part of something important: helping to win the war, while blazing a new trail for women. Connie Fields' film makes clear this dual significance, without ever taking too heavy-handed or dryly polemical an approach. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Cast
Lola Weixel
Wanita Allen
Gladys Belcher
Lyn Childs
Connie Field; Maggie Wright
Credit
Connie Field - Director, Connie Field - Editor, Lucy Massie Phenix - Editor, Connie Field - Producer
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter is a 1981documentary film by Connie Field about the American women who went to work during World War II to do "men's jobs." In 1996, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The film's title refers to "Rosie the Riveter," the cultural icon that represented women who manned the manufacturing plants which produced munitions and material during World War II.
Connie Field got the idea for the film from a California “Rosie the Riveter Reunion”, and, with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and other charitable sources, conducted interviews with many hundreds of women who had gone into war work. Out of these she choose five representatives—three black, two white—all marvelously lively, intelligent, attractive and articulate women who recall their experiences with a mixtures of pleasant nostalgia and detached bitterness.
The reminiscences are inter cut with the realities of the period – old news, films, recruiting trailers, March of Time ad pop songs such as “Rosie the Riveter”.
