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Powerful

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Blistering performances.

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. It tries to cover too many stories, rather than developing the other main characters.Nor was I a fan of the directing. Too many atmospheric shots. I would rather have learned more about some of the characters, especially Moze.Still, a good movie, and one that will repay your watching it.

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. Unfortunately Wiley shoots Spalding in the abdomen, killing the sheriff. Without waiting for the justice system to take over, some local citizens dispose of Wiley. Edna becomes a young widow who knows little about maintaining her inherited 40-acre barely arable farm. Sensing that she is rather genteel and not used to back-breaking work, her unsympathetic banker Denby (Lane Smith) advises her to sell her land and board her two children somewhere. Then Moze, a Negro drifter, knocks on her door for a handout. But he hangs around doing necessary chores for food and shelter. Now Moze has learned much about cotton farming, and he becomes widow Edna's adviser on how to farm and also make enough money to save her land. Then banker Denby visits with his blind brother-in-law (as a consequence of The Great War), Mr. Will (John Malkovitch); Denby and his wife do not want to be involved with his care anymore. But the banker does propose that Edna take in Mr. Will as a modest paying boarder to help with expenses. She accepts. Over a short time the three adults and two children become like a family that will work hard to make the farm work and to maintain the property. Their bond is quite touching, and we root for them to succeed. There are some eye-opening scenes, like Edna personally preparing her deceased husband's body for showing in her living room and subsequent burial. Apparently that undertaking was typical in the days when funeral parlors were not always accessible. Then there is the bit where cash-strapped Edna cuts out cardboard soles for her son's worn shoes. And the film points out the tremendous work involved in planting, cultivating, and picking cotton. As picking cotton alone leaves bloody fingers, sore legs, and back pain, skilled labor is important. There are also some dramatic moments, like the tornado striking. But secondary stories, like the infidelity of Wayne Lomax (Ed Harris) and teacher Viola Kelsey (Amy Madigan), often detract from the main story-line and add little. We really care more about Edna's situation with her extended family and farm.The leads are sympathetic characters who grow with the movie. Because of wonderful acting, there were several Oscar nominations. Sally Field, very convincing as the determined widow, even won her second Oscar for Best Actress. The pacing and photography are first-rate. Director Benton skillfully grabs the atmosphere of the 1930s (like another movie of the genre, "Bound for Glory," 1976). But the utopia-like spiritual (communion scene) ending is not a straight one like the rest of the film. Roger Ebert is correct when he wrote that it is simply not supported by the rest of the story. Then again, the strength of the human spirit is brilliantly portrayed.

The first time through, you think you've seen Places In The Heart before, this meager drama of pathos set in a simpler time. Sure, it's acted by a prestigious ensemble. And yes, the story it tells is nothing if not respectable. But even the title is generic and sentimental, like any number of Hallmark TV movies. 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. By this measure, the last shot of Places In The Heart is among the most transformative in all of movies. Taken out of context, it has no significance, and yet is so startling and unexpected —while at the same time so gentle and so much in keeping with all that's come before it— that it might first be confusing. It's one of the greatest shots in movies, because it re-contextualizes all that comes before it.What writer-director Robert Benton aims at and finally accomplishes in Places In The Heart is so beautiful that the movie transcends its origins as a period piece to become a picture of nothing less than the kingdom of heaven.

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 . It deals with a mother named Edna Spalding (Sally Field) of two sons is suddenly widowed to a sheriff (Ray Baker). Edna is persisted to survey facing the pressure by the bank to sell her farm . 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 . It takes part of a mini-cycle of farming movies that all debuted in 1984 . The films include Country (1984 ), The river (1984) and this one (1984). 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 . Supporting cast is frankly magnificent , such as : Amy Madigan , Linsay Crouse , Terry O'Quinn but special mention for Danny Glover , Ed Harris and John Malkovich . Being one of numerous filmed collaborations of married actors Ed Harris and Amy Madigan. Originally shown in lively colors by cameraman Nestor Almendros , Robert Benton's usual photographer , who previously won Oscar for ¨Days of heaven¨, though its visual beauty will be decreased on TV . The motion picture was very well directed by writer-director Robert Benton . This filmmaker and screenwriter, Robert Benton , set the film in his birthplace of Waxahachie , Texas in 1935, three years after he was born there . He's a films-dramas expert such as proved in ¨Human stain¨ , ¨Twilight¨ , ¨Still of the night¨ , ¨Billy Bathgate¨ and his greatest hit : ¨Kramer vs Kramer¨. Rating : Better than average, it's a great movie so well realized that is hard not to like .