Places in the Heart

Composite Score: 81.73

Starring: Sally Field, Danny Glover, John Malkovich, Ed Harris, Lindsay Crouse, Amy Madigan, Yankton Hatten, Gennie James, and Lane Smith

Director: Robert Benton

Writer: Robert Benton

Genres: Drama, History

MPAA Rating: PG

Box Office: $34.90 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Places in the Heart depicts a fictional account of a widow living in Texas during the Great Depression and her efforts to save her farm from the bank with the help of a black man, a blind man, and her children. It touches on relevant issues of race and ableism in America and features strong performances in the process. Sally Field received her second Oscar for her performance as Edna Spalding, the film’s protagonist, and Lindsay Crouse and John Malkovich both garnered nominations for their supporting performances – Crouse as Edna’s sister Margaret and Malkovich as the blind tenant Mr. Will. The film has a hopeful message about human cooperation and our ability to better each other and the world we live in when we overcome prejudices and the redemptive power of forgiveness.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                Places in the Heart’s overall effect is somewhat underwhelming. I found myself at the end asking, “That’s it?” as the credits rolled, and I’m sure in the 1980s that its fantastical church scene that put all characters from the film (living and dead) sitting together taking communion in the church pews was highly moving at the time, but in 2022, it did not carry the same weight. While forgiveness is important, consequences are also, and the only character in the film that experienced anything in the way of consequences for their actions was Wylie, the young black man who unintentionally shot Edna’s husband and was then lynched by the men of the town, a punishment that did not nearly fit the crime, whereas Ed Harris’s Wayne Lomax cheated on his wife and was still allowed to come back home and live with his family simply because the townspeople said that they looked good while dancing together. Or even the racist men of the town (literal klansmen) are able to run Danny Glover’s Moze out of town and then still sit on the implicitly redemptive pews of the film’s final scene having faced no consequences for their Klan activities. Or the banker, Mr. Denby, also gets to sit on the pews at the end after kicking out his disabled brother-in-law and consistently trying to repossess the home of the widow Edna Spalding. I don’t know, maybe people like the possibility of forgiveness without consequences, but for such egregious actions, it felt a little hollow.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                Sally Field’s performance as Edna Spalding is one of her kindest and yet most determined turns as a single mother, and she has played some single mothers. It is totally different from most of the other roles that I have seen her in but still does an incredible job in a more subdued turn as the kind widow of the town sheriff. She is more subdued in the performance while still managing to hold her own against the men of the town who want her house and her money and her land and her cotton, commanding the scene when she is onscreen.

                The support Field’s performance receives from Danny Glover as Moze, John Malkovich as Mr. Will, and Lindsay Crouse as Margaret Lomax helps make the film worth watching. Glover’s Moze initially comes across as yet another problematic 1980s black man archetype, but evolves to become something unique for the day, serving as both a mentor and savior for Edna’s family while still needing redemption himself. Ultimately, Glover’s turn as Moze manages to overcome some of the more stereotypical roles of the 1980s and become not just a monolith of “black culture”. Malkovich plays the blind tenant Mr. Will with passion, both for his own condition at the start and then for Edna’s family and Moze by the end of the film, delivering heartfelt bursts of dialogue and physicality, defending himself and those he lives with from the prejudices of the world. Crouse’s Margaret serves as a sort of foil to Field’s Edna, operating basically as an independent woman from the film’s start before eventually (implicitly) reluctantly taking her cheating husband back. Her performance has the most opportunity to shine in the moments when that marital relationship is explored, portraying all the complexity of emotions that come with infidelity and the strength of a woman willing to live without her husband in the 1930s (for a time, again the ending is a tad disappointing).

                Ultimately, Places in the Heart serves as a flawed vehicle for some excellent performances, which make it one of the Greatest Films of All Time. On their own, the film’s story and message are perhaps not as moving in 2022 as they were in 1984, but the originality of Moze’s character combined with Sally Field’s, John Malkovich’s, Danny Glover’s, and Lindsay Crouse’s acting help keep the film worth watching. It’s not necessarily an immediate must-watch, but the performances have earned their places among the all-time Greats.