Ein Platz im Herzen

This is a great film. I remembered just how it was when I was growing up. Every scene is magnificant. This is how Texas was during this era. Edna Spaulding could have been one of my relatives. Sally Field does not act Edna Spaulding, she is Edna Spaulding.

Places in the Heart was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for John Malkovich and Best Supporting Actress for Lindsay Crouse . And it won two awards - Best Original Screenplay for Benton and, of course, Best Actress for Field.

It was a strong well made drama that took place in Texas during the Depression in the mid 30s. Sally Field gave a powerful performance as Edna Spalding, a wife and mother of 2 kids who became widowed after a drunk accidentally shot her husband. She had also the chance of losing her home because she had no money to pay off the mortgage. So she decided to make some money by planting cotton. She took in a black man played by Danny Glover, who helped her plant the cotton, and a blind man played by John Malkovich. All the performances were top-notch. Sally Field was just great and for this performance she won her Oscar. Danny Glover and John Malkovich give strong supporting performances.

Places in the Heart is a moving portrait of a specific time in American history. Injustice, prejudice, and discrimination are major themes of this story, as well as friendship acts of courage and commitment . Very entertaining , Oscar-winning period piece.

I was sad to find I didn't love this as much as I had remembered from its release nearly 30 years ago.

The acting is terrific, and the film looks great. But the main plot has elements of familiar melodramatic clichés that bugged me more now in a way they didn't in 1984. The race to save the farm, and the 'we'll do it despite the odds!' dialogue felt a little too Hollywood this time around, as did the 'perfect' gallery of downtrodden, oppressed outsiders (the single mother, the African-American, the blind man).

At the same time, the subplot of the romantic triangle between Ed Harris, Lindsay Crouse and Amy Madigan, while wonderfully acted, really seemed to have very little at all to do with the rest of the film.

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).

And that wonderful long last shot, which gives the whole film a larger context, is still a powerful and brave way to end a story.

At the time this film was released I was 20 years younger. I liked it but it did not stay in my memory of good movies to watch. I just saw it again today and could not leave my seat. Was it the story? Yes. Was it the acting? Yes. More than anything it was the situations that the characters faced. Art imitating life and doing a very good job of it.

What I liked most is that I did not think that the performances took away from the story. It's about how your life can change in a split second. Change in a way that challenges you to look at yourself deeply. It's about personal values. It is the type of story that moves me most these days. Stories about humans. It is a stunning film.

"Places in the Heart" is one of the more under-rated films of the 1980s. 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. She decides that the only way to keep her life is to grow and harvest cotton (not the easiest thing in the world to do, especially during the Depression). Drifter Danny Glover is the catalyst who can bring everything together and the blind John Malkovich (Oscar-nominated) also proves to be an asset. However, racists threaten to stop Field by eliminating Glover. On the other side of town Field's sister (Lindsay Crouse, in her Oscar-nominated role) is having troubles with her husband (Ed Harris). He is having an affair with a local school-teacher (Amy Madigan) and this development could ruin her life just as quickly as Field's life has changed. "Places in the Heart" benefits from great performances, but the direction and screenplay are also second-to-none. An excellent film that was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1984. 5 stars out of 5.