PLACES IN THE HEART
US, 1984, 111 minutes, Colour.
Sally Field, Danny Glover, John Malkovich, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Lindsay Crouse.
Directed by Robert Benton.
Places in the Heart is a gentle film. It might almost be called old-fashioned. It is a story of a family with great courage during the Depression times. The setting is Texas 1935. The film focuses on Edna Spalding who becomes a widow and has to survive on her farm with her two young children. In this she is helped by a black itinerant, Moses, and by a blind World War One veteran, Mr. Will. While the plot outline is simple, the treatment is beautiful and done in the best Hollywood tradition.
The film was written and directed by Robert Benton Kramer vs. Kramer) and stars her second Academy Award winning performance by Sally Field. She has excellent support from Danny Glover and John Malkovich as Moses and Mr. Will. Lindsay Crouse (The Verdict, Iceman, Daniel) received an Oscar nomination for her performance as Edna's sister. Ed Harris is her husband and Amy Madigan her friend. The cast works very well together. The whole film creates the atmosphere of the town. The farms, the difficulties. It is also placed in a religious context with prayer, Grace before meals and a hymn 'This Is My Song, This is My Story' at beginning and end. The film ends surrealistically with a very strong message of religious communion where all the characters, hostile or friends, are together in church and pass communion bread and wine to one another.
The film was seen as an '80s attempt to reinforce traditional values (many seeing this in line with President Reagan's emphasis on a resurgent America through traditional values). Two other films on American rural life were also released in 1984, The River, Country, and both leading actresses also received Oscar nominations, Sissy Spacek and Jessica Lange.
1. The meaning of the title, its focus? Sentiment and feeling? Characters, situations, values?. The United States in the'30s? The 80s?
2. How well did the film deserve its acclaim and awards? The quality of production? Acting? For American audiences? others?
3. The re-creation of the period: colour photography, the colours of Texas and the Depression, the '30s, the town, the large church and hall building, the school, the dance hall, the houses, cotton mills, the fields? The small town, the rural atmosphere? The detail of look in cars, machines, dress? The manners and styles of the '30s?
4. The importance of the religious atmosphere: the credits with the prayers, the blessings? 'This Is My Song, This is My Story'? Prayer, faith, charity, sin and forgiveness? Love and hatred? Honesty and dishonesty? The film ending with the religious celebration: the church, St. Paul's prayer on charity from I Corinthians 13, the hymn-singing, the group of people present in the church, sacramental bread and wine, each characters passing bread and wine to the other and praying a prayer of peace? All being reconciled in the context of the sacrament? The singing of 'This Is My Song, This Is My Story'?
5. Traditional values: integrity, honesty, the family, hard work, honour, endeavour, success? The relevance of these past American values to the '80s?
6. The setting and the credits: the meal, the family, the happiness of the group, relationship between husband and wife, children? The seeming humour of the sheriff called to the drunken negro in the railyards? The happy solution to the problem and suddenly turning deadly serious? The death of the sheriff? The repercussions for the family? Their grief? The black man lynched, dragged dead behind the truck, hanged, taken down by the other blacks? The introduction of serious themes, racial themes and hatred?
7. The long segment of the mourning and the funeral? The family together? Edna and her having to cope, Margaret and her help, the bond between the two sisters? The children and the news, their coping? The great number of visitors? Margaret's reaction to the truck with the dead negro behind it? The funeral, the wake? Bonds and qualities?
8. Sally Field's portrait of Edna? A simple woman, not knowing much, spending her life bringing up her children and looking after the house, her ignorance of her husband's financial affairs? Her determination to cope? The visit of the bank manager and his explanations? Her determination and trying to learn how to manage money, fill out cheques? The pressures on her to give up the children, sell the house? Her not wanting to break up the family? Her willingness to learn, to do hard work? Her overall determination and success? The encounter with Moses, giving him food, not giving him jobs? his taking the spoons and her allowing him to stay (echoes of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables)? Moses' help, the information about the cotton, going to the bank, buying the seed ? and the deals with Simmons and his trying to deceive her with the wrong seed, sowing, ploughing, harvest? The wanting to win the prize? The picking of the cotton, the pain? The negroes joining and her feeding them, their working, through the night? The rest of the family working including Wayne and Margaret? The pressure and their winning? Her relationship with Margaret, with Wayne? Her love for her children, having to discipline Frank when he smoked and giving him the beating, her resolving never to do it again? The bond with Moses, his helping her, advising her, the deal with Simmons for the selling of the cotton? Her grief at his beating? The farewell, and his giving her title gifts for the children and his mother's handkerchief for herself? Mr. Will and her having to accept him, the encounters, relying on him, the cooking, his gentleness, her response to his asking her to describe herself? The portrait of a good woman?
9. The small town and its detail: the schoolchildren, the school, smoking behind the shed, the family's playing cards, Margaret and her beauty parlour and clients, the band playing and singing, the cotton fields, the local dances, the church?
10. Small town characters: Margaret and her strength, warmth, helping her sister, being deceived by Wayne, her eventually realising this, her being hurt, eventual relenting? Wayne and Vi and their relationship, going together, his lies when he returned home, a boastful man, two-faced, his reaction to Vi's decision, to Margaret's hurt? Vi and the relationship with Wayne, her wanting to break it, the effect of the tornado on her? Moving, tension at the card game? Bud and his relationship with her, a good man, the new job? Denbeigh and the bank manager, elders of the church, but businessmen nonetheless, the pressures on Edna? Simmons and his toughness? The Ku Klux Klan in the town and their attack?
11.Mose: his arrival, wanting to do jobs, chopping the wood, Edna feeding him, his stealing the silver, the return? His staying to help her work, the advice about the cottonseed, about the ploughing, helping with the work, advice? His superstition and the scene with Frank and the breaking of the spell? The bond with Mr. Will? Becoming part of the family? The work with the cotton, his strong demands, Edna's determination, his hiring the pickers? Simmons' rudeness to him? The Klan arriving and beating him? His being hurt, weeping? His having to leave ? his gifts, Edna's affirmation of him and reminder of his achievement with bringing in the cotton crop? The theme of race relationships throughout the film with the negro killing Edna's husband, the lynching, dragging his body to the house, Mose and the Klan? Edna and her humanity, Margaret and her suspicion, Simmons and his racism? The final communion of black and white?
12.Mr. Will: being brought by Denbeigh, seeming awkward, his blindness, a Victim of 20 years from World War One? Edna forced to have him? His beginning to talk, not wanting pity? A quiet man, a good man, his making of brooms, listening to the novels on records? The children scratching it and his complaint - turning to embarrassment at not realising Edna was in the bath? His work, cooking the meals, morale? The tornado and his rescue of Possum? The confrontation with the Klan and his shooting, his recognising their voices and identifying them, thus saying Mose? The gentle scene where he asked Edna to describe her appearance? A good man?
13. The children, relationship to their parents, strong, relating, at school, Frank's telling his mother how to give him the beating, their helping with the work, scratching Mr. Will's record?
14. The impact of the tornado, the special effects, the sky, the winds, the houses exploding, the litter of the town? The horror and danger of tornadoes? Hiding in the school, hiding in the shelter? The old woman squatter in the car, her wanting Frank to get in with her, her death?
15. Themes of work, the reality of hard work? The detail of the cotton picking?
16. The portrait of the simple American life, with nostalgia and admiration?
