Places in the Heart
Tags: melodrama, flashback

Plot synopsis:
It is Sunday afternoon in late March of 1935 in Waxahachie, Texas, a small town some 40 miles south of Dallas. During the opening credits, a popular Protestant church hymn "Blessed Assurance" is playing, giving the audience glimpses of the central Texas prairie, people leaving church, having lunch in a restaurant, Sunday dinner at home, a homeless black man going up to a door for a meal, a homeless woman living in her car, and abject poverty nearly all blacks were forced to live in due to the segregation and discrimination laws. The hymn ends with Royce Spaulding, the town sheriff, saying grace for he and his family. During the lunch meal prayer, there are gun shots being fired outside. Sheriff Spaulding is summoned by a deputy that a drunken young negro Wylie is firing shots. The young man accidentally fires his gun shooting the sheriff in the chest and killing him instantly. Soon after his body is brought into the home, local vigilantes have dragged the body of Wylie to his death and displaying to Edna Spaulding outside her home reminding her that negro's killing whites will never go unpunished, even if accidental. Her sister Margaret arrives and tells them to leave.Meanwhile, an affair has been going on between Edna Spaulding's brother in law, Wayne Lomax, and teacher Viola Kelsey at an abandoned shack on the prairie. Edna and her sister, Margaret Lomax are preparing the body of her husband for the funeral and have the wake at Edna's house with numerous people attending and bringing potluck food. Margaret tries to comfort Edna with Edna unsure about what she will do to support the family because she has never worked outside the home and knew nothing about her husband's finances.At dusk, the hanged body of Wylie has been recovered by family members and the next day we are shown the very simple, bluesy funeral of Wylie's burial in a pine box in a segregated negro cemetery of homemade wood markers, whereas the funeral of Edna's husband is very elaborate in comparison and nicely done at a church and cemetery. Soon after the funeral and after the last mourners leave the house, a homeless black man named Moze comes to Edna's home if she has any work for him. Edna tells her she can fix him a plate of food, but then needs to leave.The next morning, Edna hears wood being chopped outside in her yard. Moze is still around. She tells him once again she can make him a plate of food, but then needs to leave. Moze tells her about all kinds of handyman projects that can be done around the house and while doing so, he sneaks a set of silverware to steal.Local banker Albert Denby makes a trip to Edna's home and tells her the situation of the debt on the home and that she may need to sell her home and move in with relatives in order to make ends meet. Edna refuses and is determined to keep her homestead and children and find a way to make ends meet.That night, a local sheriff brings Moze to Edna's home having caught him with the stolen silverware and Moze claiming to work for her. Edna defends Moze to the sheriff telling him he didn't go with the silverware where he was supposed to. Edna now sees an opportunity to hire Moze inquiring him how much he knows about cotton farming, but also assures him she will shoot him herself if he ever tries to steal from her again.Edna makes a trip to the downtown bank and asks Mr. Denby if he can teach her how to write a check and she also tells him she has hired a negro man to help out that is giving her tips on how to make money cotton farming. Mr. Denby dismisses her idea as very wrong and ignorant hiring a negro and that many white property owners have sold their homes or been foreclosed on. Edna stands her ground that she is moving forward.On April 5, Edna and Moze are at Mr. Simmons' Cotton Gin to purchase seed for a cotton crop. Moze spots right away she's being sold a lower grade seed for higher grade price and Edna tells Mr. Simmons it's the wrong seed. Mr. Simmons berates and intimidates Moze for his "honest mistake" and gives Edna the higher quality seed.Moze is back at Edna's place nailing good luck charms on the barn he is sleeping in. He's mumbling to himself about how he could have been killed for speaking up. Edna's son Frank introduces himself to Moze while he's working. Moze refuses to warm up to the boy at first, but Frank is more than happy to help him work and assist him.Mr. Denby makes a trip back to Edna's home introducing his brother Will, a blind World War 1 veteran that he offers to live with her and pay her room and board per month. Despite Mr. Denby trying to butter Will up and Edna trying to be friendly and make small talk with Will, he is reluctant and tersely tells Edna he just wants his space and not to be felt sorry for.There is a dance going on at an old white wood frame house with a group called The Lone Star Syrup Boys playing and many townspeople attending. Wayne gets home from work and he and Margaret make love. They arrive late at the dance with Buddy and Viola Kelsey having been concerned about them. Viola is now upset and keeps a distance from Wayne because she knows he still loves his wife and has sex with her.Back at the Spaulding place, Frank and Possum sneak into Mr. Will's bedroom and play the story "Trent's Last Case" on his victrola. Edna calls the kids almost immediately and in a state of panic, Frank runs the needle across the record scratching it, putting it back in its case, and coming downstairs.Some moments later, Edna is preparing herself a hot bath in a galvanized steel tub and Mr. Will storms into her room angrily not realizing she's naked and bathing yelling at her feeling humiliated, that he would love to leave her house if there were other choices, and is furious about her children going through his things. She stands up for her kids, he hits the water in the tub and is now embarrassed. He exits the room.At dawn, Edna and Moze begin plowing the 30 acres of land to begin the cotton crop. There is also a brief scene of the Lone Star Syrup Boys tired and on the road.Viola is outside at the schoolhouse during recess and Wayne drives by staring and flirting with her. She's distressed at this and goes to the back of the schoolhouse about to light an Old Gold cigarette. Several boys, including Frank Spaulding, are behind the school sneaking a cigarette and get caught.Viola brings Frank home from school and very reluctantly Edna decides to administer punishment. Frank tells her that he would have received "ten good licks" from his father. She follows through with it in the pantry and Frank manages to save face during the punishment. Edna is very upset by having done it and confesses it to Mr. Will.Margaret is at her home beauty shop tending to a customer and it's getting darker, radio static, and lights flickering despite being the afternoon. At the same time, Moze is working in the fields and sees a tornado coming through. Viola leads her school to the back of the classroom using a piano as a shield. Frank runs to his home. The woman living in her car tries to get Frank to come to safety in the vehicle, but he refuses. At Margaret's home, a customer shuts a window with it shattering and small shards of glass hitting her in the face. Moze gets the family to safety in the cellar and Frank makes it in time. Part of the schoolhouse is torn off and many other homes are totally destroyed.After the tornado is over, there is only minor damage of the Spaulding place that can be fixed in days, but the schoolhouse is badly damaged and the woman in her car was killed with the car turned upside down. Viola's husband Buddy comes to the rescue. After seeing the damage she pleads with him to leave town for the city because of the poverty and frequency of tornados.It is now September and Edna is in the kitchen preparing breakfast and Mr. Will turns on the radio with the farm and livestock report. It is announced that cotton is now at an all time low of 3.5 cents a pound.Back at the bank, Edna is pleading to Mr. Denby if somehow the payment of the house can be deferred, as she owes over $150, but only has $24 in her account. Mr. Denby goes to ask his boss, the president of the bank, if it can be done. In the background he shakes his head no. Edna looks at a series of photographs of people bringing in the first bale of cotton a year receiving an additional $100. Edna sees this as an opportunity to be able to make the payment, hire some workers, and still have some money leftover.The cotton is ready to be picked. Moze totally dismisses Edna's proposal to get the cotton picked as quick as possible and get the first bale in. He warns her that the toil from picking the cotton and cuts on her hands will be unbearable. Edna does not back down and tells Moze if they don't do it that he will be back to begging for meals, Mr. Will will be forced to live in a state home, and she and her kids will be separated and lose the homestead.The Lomax and Kelsey couples are at the Lomax home playing cards. Buddy Kelsey announces to them he and Violet are moving to Houston. There is some considerable tension between Wayne and Viola throughout the night. Wayne makes a pass at Viola attempting to grab a set of cards out of her hand and she pulls away. Margaret spots this and knows something is not right. Buddy and Viola leave and Margaret slaps Wayne in the face knowing he's been sleeping with Viola and tells him she doesn't love him and wants a divorce.Edna, Moze, Frank, and Possum are all picking cotton in the hot sun for hours with Edna getting cuts on her fingers from the hulls. Moze is annoyed by all this thinking it won't work. After having finished four acres, Edna inquires with Moze about hiring pickers. Ten is what they should have. She leaves it to Moze to hire them and risk losing money if she doesn't get the first bale in.The next morning, ten men, women, and children are at the door hired to pick cotton. Edna feeds them a breakfast of cornbread and tea. Afterwards, they go to work. Mr. Will hears several truckloads of people passing through and announces to Moze someone else trying to get ahead of getting the first bale in. Moze tells the workers they need to go faster and have only 3 days left. Edna is struggling to retain her strength and dignity.A country instrumental version of La Golindrina is playing with Edna and her husband dancing. She wakes up from a dream and it is early morning with Mr. Will in the kitchen picking string beans. Edna is stiff, exhausted, and telling him of her dream while still half asleep. She realizes there is only one day left to pick cotton.It is night and oil lanterns have been set up so they can pick cotton. Wayne and Margaret have joined in to speed it up. Mr. Will is on one of the cotton wagons listening to Trent's Last Case on his victrola outside while they finish.A beyond-exhausted Edna is crawling through the cotton fields searching for more cotton to pick with Moze giving her the good news they have now finished.Edna and Moze are parked at Mr. Simmons' cotton gin awaiting his arrival. Moze is giving her instructions on how to bargain with him. Mr. Simmons arrives and tells Edna he needs to charge a fee to gin the cotton, which Moze told her otherwise not to accept. She requests for 4.5 cents a pound, despite the 3.5 cents that was recent on market prices. Mr. Simmons gets tough and insists he will give her 2.75, she drops it to 4. He finally bargains with 3.5 and says there is no way he can go higher. He asks her to leave and take her business elsewhere. She looks at the picture on his desk, which was one of the pictures in the bank earlier and reminds Mr. Simmons that this will probably be the first year he does not get the first bale of cotton for the season and that another dealer might just go for the same price she requested. He tersely asks her to sit down.Edna comes out of Mr. Simmons' office. She managed to get the cotton up to 3.75 cents a pound and a received nice check for it. She's still somewhat dissatisfied and believes they could have done more, but Moze insists they would have died from overwork.Edna is sitting in her kitchen now repairing a set of work shoes and somewhat at peace and Mr. Will approaches her asking for a cup of tea. He reluctantly asks her a question as to what she looks like. She goes over the details of her personal appearance with him comparing herself to other relatives. Then the teapot whistles and his tea is ready.Edna, her children, and Wayne and Margaret Lomax go to a town dance at an outdoor shed. The Lonestar Syrup Boys are performing once again playing La Golindrina. Frank asks his mother Edna to dance with him. There are still tensions between Wayne and Margaret, they dance together, and he's still trying to make up with her. Buddy and Viola Kelsey are also at the dance with a still jealous Viola watching Wayne and Margaret dance.Back at the Spaulding farm, Mr. Will is caning a chair and hanging out with Moze with Moze discussing the success of Edna's bargaining with the cotton buyer. He hears some activity going on in the back, but Moze dismisses it. But he goes outside to check on what's going on. There are four Ku Klux Klansmen that go after Moze beating him. Mr. Will steps outside with Sheriff Spaulding's gun threatening the klansmen to leave. He identifies the men as customers of his he knows and Mr. Simmons, the cotton buyer, who is obviously outraged at having been cheated out of money by Edna because of Moze's instructions to her on how to bargain with him and taking it out on Moze. Mr. Will shoots the gun, the men leave, and Mr. Simmons assures Moze he is not yet finished with him.Edna is back home rushing to Moze at what has happened. He's in the barn having cleaned it and packed his belongings. He has cuts and bruises on his face from the beatings. He tells her he needs to leave before the klansmen come back. She worries that he'll be killed and won't be able to manage without him. But Moze knows he needs to leave. He gives Edna small gifts he wants she and her children to have. She is saddened at his leaving, but reassures him that he was the one that made it happen by tilling her land, planting the cotton, and bringing in the first cotton crop in the county for the year and his race had nothing to do with it. Moze accepts her compliment and leaves.Back at the church, the choir is once again singing "Blessed Assurance". Bud and Viola Kelsey are now leaving town passing by the church. The pastor gives a brief sermon about love to the small congregation. Margaret takes Wayne by the hand assuring him of forgiveness. During communion, the choir sings "In the Garden". During this scene, the elements of bread and wine are passed from person to person in a now large congregation dressed casually and in their Sunday Best telling each other "Peace of God". Included in this are The Lonestar Syrup Boys, the woman killed in her car during the tornado, Mr. Denby, Moze, and finally Sheriff Spaulding saying "Peace of God" to Wylie, the young negro boy that accidentally killed him. It is a symbolic scene indicating the "New Heaven and Earth" in the Bible that poverty, racism, oppression, and hatred is all gone and that love and forgiveness are now the rule.

Review: There's a subplot in the film involving her and her philandering husband Ed Harris.Robert Benton won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Director and Sally Field won her second Oscar for Places in the Heart.
Sally Field is superb in the role of the Depression era Texas widow, Emma Spalding, and deserved her second Oscar which showed that yes, we really do like her.
I always love this actress, who is especially compelling in the dramatic Norma Rae and charming in the romantic comedy, Murphy's Romance.The film tells the tale of a good, kind, loving, and strong woman, the widow, Emma (who has been left with with two children to raise on her own) and the pair of disparate characters who help her to literally 'save the farm'...the black drifter, Moze, who plants her cotton, and the intriguing blind border, Mr. Will, that she is forced to take on to appease the nasty banker.
As for the man involved in the affair, Ed Harris (whom I actually kinda like) always does a brilliant job portraying any sort of somewhat sleazy character!Memorable moments...One moving scene has lingered in my mind all these years, when the newly widowed Emma helps prepare the body of her sheriff husband, Royce, for burial.
Somewhat based on director Robert Benton's experiences as a youth in Waxahachie, Texas, the film deals with one woman's (Sally Field in her second Oscar-winning performance) struggle to keep her land, house, and children after her husband is killed in a freak accident.
It's a remarkable movie from start to finish, although I must admit - the end scene somewhat confuses me.The movie in short, a woman (Sally Field) is widowed and will be forced to sell her farm unless she can pay off the debts her husband left.
Sally Field is the perfect choice for the role that she plays, as are Danny Glover and John Malkovich, who is ever so believable as a blind man.I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to others.
A must see film about human triumph over disaster.Sally Field earned a well-deserved Oscar as she delivered a great performance along with Danny Glover as Moses and John Malkovich as Mr. Will.
This is an exquisite mood piece about the turbulent life of a widow set against mid-Western cotton farm at the turn of the great Depression 1930s , in which Sally Field won well-deserved Oscar for her magnificent acting and equally Robert Benton for his original script .
She fights her fateful fate along with an African-American (Danny Glover) and a blind (John Malkovich).It's a sensitive and intimate look at hometown childhood , an affectionate film celebrating the spiritual force of the human will ; being based on records and memories well written by Robert Benton about his little town , Waxahachid , Texas .
All three pictures were nominated that year for the Best Actress Academy Award with Sally Field winning the Oscar in that category for the latter beating out Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek from the first two films respectively .
Extraordinary performances from film stars , as this flick gave actress Sally Field her second and final to date , Academy Award and both in the Best Actress in a Leading Role category ; Field's first had been around five years earlier for Norma Rae (1979) in 1980 .
That thudding, metaphorical title not withstanding (thankfully it isn't literal), this is a lovely reminiscence from writer-director Robert Benton, an autobiographical story about a Texas brood during the Depression having to make ends meet after the family patriarch is killed.
Sally Field won a well-deserved Oscar as the widow who decides to grow cotton on her land to save her house from being taken by the bank; Danny Glover gives his best performance as a drifter who helps her and John Malkovich is equally good as a blind boarder.
Places, is the one that sticks solidly in most viewer's minds, if for no other reason than the fact that Sally Field won her second oscar for her role as Edna Spalding.
It had been years since I had seen it and remembered little about it except for ending which, as others have noted, sticks in your mind, but more about that later.All three of these films revolve around the same theme which is trying not to lose the farm with one problem after another cropping up like an acre of cotton.
Not to worry though, as it moves along from scene to scene at a fast clip, thanks to some good performances, not only by Fields, but everyone involved.In the beginning of the film, Edna's husband Royce (Ray Baker), who is also the town sheriff, is called out to take care of a black kid named Wiley (De'vooreaux White), who is drunk and shooting off a pistol aimlessly.
Shortly thereafter, this Edna is forced to take in a blind man named Mr. Will(John Malkovich) as a border, in order to show good faith to the bank that she will meet her house payment.The majority of the time in the film is spent dealing with Edna along with her two children, Moze's, and Mr. Will, developing a bond of friendship, along with Edna's and Moze's attempt to get their cotton crop planted and harvested.
Sally Field gives a powerful, Oscar-winning performance as Edna Spaulding, a wife and mother of two kids who becomes widowed after a drunk accidentally shoots her husband.
She takes in a very friendly black man (wonderfully played by Danny Glover in one of his early film roles) who helps her get and plant the cotton, and a smart blind man (played by John Malkovich in an Oscar-nominated performance) who's a paying boarder.
How does one adequately thank an actress whose portrayal of Edna Spaulding gives new meaning to the word genuine?With this performance Sally Field takes her place among the greatest actresses of all time.
Danny Glover's depiction of Moze, a wonderer caught up in the depths of the Great Depression, is particularly inspiring."Places in the Heart" is the type of motion picture which inhabits one long after the credits have been played.
A solid dust bowl soap opera that stars Sally Field as a weary widow struggling single-handedly to keep her cotton farm running.Director Robert Benton's ("Kramer vs.
The movie is a like a checklist of every bad thing that could possibly happen to people living on a cotton farm in the 1930s, so we get a big tornado that wipes out the town and a special appearance by the Ku Klux Klan.
The movie is anchored by Field's fierce performance, and it's her that keeps the potential runaway melodrama in check.The fine cast of at the time mostly unknowns includes John Malkovich as a blind drifter; Danny Glover as a slave; Lindsay Crouse and Ed Harris as Field's sister and brother-in-law.
Places of the Heart (1984)A strong melodrama set in Depression Texas, and starring a wonderful Sally Field as the matriarch of a farming family.
With the help of a homeless black man (Danny Glover) and an unwilling blind boarder (John Malkovich), she struggles against all the odds to make a go of it.This is a very good film, filled with nice underplayed performances.
Her sister Margaret Lomax (Lindsay Crouse) is struggling to survive but her husband Wayne (Ed Harris) is secretly cheating with school teacher Viola Kelsey (Amy Madigan).Sally Field does a brilliant job playing this compelling character.
Kramer" ('79), in which he won the Academy Award for Best Director, plus four other more Oscars (including Best Film of the Year) for a total of nine nominations, the filmmaker Robert Benton, after the very good, but not as well succeed, "Still of the Night" ('82), started to develop a more intimate film, based on his own experiences growing up in Waxahachie, Texas during the Era of the Great Depression.The year is 1935.
The Spalding family, consisting of Royce, the local sheriff (Ray Baker), his devoted wife, Edna (Sally Field) and their two little kids, Frank (Yankton Hatten) & Possum (Gennie James), live in a small, segregated town in the midst of the Depression.
Fighting back to sustain her family and home, Edna joins an african-american drifter called Moses (Danny Glover) and her new tenant, Mr. Will (John Malkovich), to plant cotton on all her acres to survive the Depression, but it's a task that will not be easy to succeed...It's noticeable how Robert Benton gave his whole heart to the movie: the tenderness, dreamlike realism and nostalgic factor of his own screenplay; the assertive direction of a melodrama without being too corny or overly sentimental and the use of an absolutely beautiful photography, captured by Néstor Almendros' camera.The less good part, is that the film drifts itself from the main plot when it starts to give too much relevance to the sub-plots from side characters such as the love triangle between Edna's brother in law, Wayne Lomax (Ed Harris), married to Edna's sister, Margaret (Lindsay Crouse), a hairdresser and the town's teacher, Viola Kelsey (Amy Madigan), married to a good hearted businessman, Buddy (Terry O'Quinn), which that went nowhere, throwing the movie into almost the 'soap opera' territory.Despite that, the ensemble cast delivers superb performances: the real life couple, Amy Madigan & Ed Harris always display great on-screen chemistry; Lindsay Crouse scored her only Oscar nominated performance here as the affable sister, however cheated wife; John Malkovich, also Oscar nominated, is very good as the blind, but literate & helpful, Mr. Will.
Ngor from "The Killing Fields" was awarded, anyway the prize went to good hands that year.Danny Glover, in one of his first significant roles, plays the token black man with a sense of dignity and gravitas within his performance.
Glover deserved to be recognized for his role in "Places in the Heart" as much as his fellow colleagues, the two nominated supporting actors, Malkovich and Crouse.Last, but not the least, Sally Field, won her second Oscar here (after she won for "Norma Rae" back in '80), in a brave performance playing the central role of Edna Spalding, the persevering young widow, determined to sustain her children and to survive working in a men's world and in a town that is in an one step to poverty.In short, "Places in the Heart" is a memorable and affectionate 'period piece' of Americana, Robert Benton's most personal and devoted project (hence the movie's title) and also one of his best directed films.
Edna Spalding (Sally Field in an Academy-Award winning performance) is the wife and mother in a family of four in the rural south in Texas in the midst of the Depression.
And towards the end, Mr. Will defends Moze, and this rings of some of the themes present in "To Kill a Mockingbird", both the book and film.There is one side story which distracts from the main storyline: Wayne, the husband of Edna's sister Margaret is having an affair with the local schoolteacher, Viola.
As much as I like the talent of Ed Harris, Lindsay Crouse, and Amy Madigan I would have preferred their sequences cut with more screen time offered for the developing relationships between Edna, Moze, Mr. Will and the kids.Still, a fine film with incredible acting work.
Sally Field won an Academy Award for her performance here, but it is John Malkovich who is the real stand out of the film - he plays a blind man very convincingly.
The Ed Harris and Lindsay Crouse subplot is nothing out of the ordinary, and it adds nothing to the film, except to act as a distraction to the central drama involving Sally Field.
That said, all the acting (Sally Field, Danny Glover, John Malcovich) is terrific, and the details of time and place are rich and vivid is slightly (intentionally) softened by the haze of the passing years (Benton grew up in the town where the story takes place).
Sally Field's performance was brilliant in this movie, along with John Malkovich who played a blind man, and Danny Glover, a black man who gave a great help to plant.
Field plays Edna Spalding, a housewife who ends up being a widow when her husband is accidentally shot and killed by a young drunk African American.
The two women both embody Sally Field's courage and resolve in the face of repeated disappointments and frustrations.Like the members of the Academy in 1984, I also really enjoyed "Places in The Heart." I saw impressive performances throughout, from the wife of the unfaithful husband, to the unsympathetic banker, to the abrupt blind man, to the devoted farm-hand.
The performances are great, especially in the cases of Sally Field, Danny Glover,John Malkovich,Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, and Lindsay Crouse.These make the movie believable.
In 1930s southern United States, a widow (Sally Field) and her family try to run their cotton farm with the help of a disparate group of friends.Rotten Tomatoes says, "Places in the Heart is a quiet character piece with grand ambitions that it more than fulfills, thanks to absorbing work from writer-director Robert Benton and a tremendous cast." I disagree.
I have been a John Malkovish fan for some time and I just love him in Places in the Heart, also Sally Field and Danny Glover gave memorable performances, every time I look at this film and when It gets to the ending, it baffels the heck out of me, I just cannot get the meaning of it, the only thing that I can think of is that, we should get a good feeling and cry knowing that the two men who died at the start of the film are in heaven now..
This is a fine movie, certainly, lit up by some truly great performances.First of all Sally Field's turn as the woman who has to learn how to run a cotton farm in the Depression when everything was stacked against her.Followed by Danny Glover's underwritten performance as Moze, the man who helps her do that.But, despite the fact that it received an Academy Award, I think the problem here, to the extent that it is a problem, is the script.
Very good film in which Sally Fields portrays Edna, a character whose life turns upside down one evening.
It was also nominated for Best Costume Design, Best Director, and the Best Picture of the Year.The scene of Edna Spaulding negotiating a price for her cotton with W.E. Simmons, the Klansman, who thinks he will bulldoze the poor widow for some extra profit, is a treasure all in and of itself.The affair, also perplexing and out of place for many commentators, is essential; it truly cements in the viewers eye (and before the eye of the storm crashes in)how the pressure of small town life is closing in around the throat of Amy Madigan's character, Viola Kelsey, a pressure mostly created by her own choices.
Sally Field's acceptance speech for her (deserved) Oscar win is better remembered today than the movie itself.At its most powerful, film juxtaposes images to create ideas in the mind of the audience.
Oscar-winner Sally Field was marvelous as was the entire cast, as the depression-age South never seemed more authentic including the sadness and shame of class poverty, the abject guilt of marital infidelity, the no-power position of women then, severe racial injustices and the oppression and torture of blacks, the unopposed power of the church and the resulting hypocrisies of the churchgoers, natural calamities that took away nearly everything, and how all that resolved itself into one of the most involving films of the '80's, and one where all people magically came together as one at the end, just as they do in our heavenly and utopian dreams.One of the best story endings of all time as the entire cast of characters, those still living at the end and those who died in the film, were shown sitting alive together in the church in a fantasy communion scene with one of my Grandma's favorite hymns playing in the background.
Writer/Director Robert Benton tells a sensitive story about the details that he had remembered (good and bad) as a child in the small town of Waxahachie, Texas (just south of Dallas) in the 1930s.As Sheriff Royce Spalding (Ray Baker) sits down to his evening meal with wife Edna (Sally Field), son Frank, and daughter Possum, he is interrupted by his deputy who tells him that he is needed to help corral Wiley, a "drunk Negro." The intoxicated Wiley (De'voreaux White) has been wildly shooting his handgun down at the railroad yard.
Everything was perfect; well-built characters, audience-hooking plot, beautiful film-work, great acting, but no resolution.However, even with all its downfalls, the viewer will most likely put this movie down as a classic, if not one that they certainly remembered.
I just finished watching "Places in the Heart," but it took me a lot of time to find this film.
"Places in the Heart" is written and directed by Robert Benton, who is also known as the director and the screenplay writer of the five Oscar-winning film Kramer vs Kramer.
"Places in the Heart" stars Sally Field, Ed Harris, John Malkovich, Lindsay Crouse and Danny Glover.
Each and every performance is awesome in the film, but there must be a special note for Sally Field, as Edna Spalding, who plays the role of a widowed woman, left alone with her two kids in debt after her husband is shot.
Showered with accolades upon release, Robert Benton's "Places in the Heart" (1984) stars Sally Field as Edna Spalding, a Texan widow who tries to save the family farm during the Great Depression.The 1980s saw the release of a number of "women's pictures", most of which were influenced by second-wave feminism, and most of which saw strong women struggling to either beat the odds or triumph against hordes of mean, nasty men.