'Places in the Heart'
A retrospective movie review by Walter Frith
There were three films in 1984 relating to a family's struggle to save their land. Two of them were modern tales, 'The River' with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek and 'Country' with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard. The other, a depression era tale entitled 'Places in the Heart' was the most heartfelt and sincere effort of this trio.
Set in Waxahachie, Texas during the most gruelling years of the 1930's, it tells the story of a farm widow whose struggle to save her land is indeed a challenging one. Her husband was the local sheriff who was accidentally shot to death at the town's train tracks by a drunken drifter. The body is brought directly home to the shock of the entire family and is prepared for burial.
After the funeral there is a tender moment shared between Field and her sister (Lindsay Crouse) as the former tries to figure out what direction her life will take as a widow. The bank is persistent in keeping the mortgage payments up on the family's land of almost 40 acres and the only way Field can do it is by planting, nursing and harvesting a field of cotton. The bank manager gives her a boarder (John Malkovich in one of his first film roles) who is blind from having fought in World War I and he spends his time making brooms and chatting with the family members. A drifter (Danny Glover also in one of his first roles) stops by one evening to ask if there are any odd jobs he can do to earn some extra money. Field offers him a plate of food but has no work for him. The next morning she finds him chopping firewood out back and he won't take 'no' for an answer and tries to make friends with the family. It seems he's been chopping cotton since he was a child and helps the family in their cotton harvest to save the land.
There are many more powerful moments in this film that play out like a series of family photographs and personal tributes courtesy of director Robert Benton who is a native of the small town in the film and his story telling is both relevant and deeply intense in bringing ordinary people to a movie audience with the deepest of dignity. A treasured film classic with an ending that should bring people closer together, 'Places in the Heart' is a drama that was nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Robert Benton who would win the film's Original Screenplay Award and bring Sally Field her second Best Actress Oscar which she accepted with the now famous --- "You like me, you really like me!"--- speech. See this movie with someone very special in your life.
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