Most films that are made in the 80's have special places in my heart. This is one of those films. Watching and getting familiarized with them tells a lot about the modern cinema. You can track the progress of great actors and actresses as well as the directors. I just finished watching "Places in the Heart," but it took me a lot of time to find this film. It is getting harder and harder to watch older films. Since this review will be the only source of this beautiful drama, I will try to write it good, so it will be a future reference for me. "Places in the Heart" is written and directed by Robert Benton, who is also known as the director and the screenplay writer of the five Oscar-winning film Kramer vs Kramer. "Places in the Heart" stars Sally Field, Ed Harris, John Malkovich, Lindsay Crouse and Danny Glover. Each and every performance is awesome in the film, but there must be a special note for Sally Field, as Edna Spalding, who plays the role of a widowed woman, left alone with her two kids in debt after her husband is shot. Her gestures and mimics help the atmosphere of the film a lot. There is a constant sorrow in her eyes and she really makes you forget the fact that she is actually acting. This performance got her an Academy Award for The Best Actress in a Leading Role, but it is not very easy to say that "Places in the Heart" is only about her. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards including The Best Picture, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, John Malkovich, which as a blind guy, really deserved to win this award, Best Director, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Lindsay Crouse and Best Costume Design. The reason why I counted all the nominations was to show you that three out of seven nominations were for the individual performances. That being said, performances are one of the strongest points of the film, as well as the story. As I was saying, "Places in the Heart" doesn't focus on one story. What makes this film complete, is the fact that there are a lot of little pieces gathered together. Film focuses on Edna Spalding and her kids after her husband dies, how she tries to get the hold of things around her life and her house. In the meantime, Moses (Danny Glover) shows us the real struggles of black people in Texas, USA in 1930s while working for Mrs. Spalding, and, in my opinion, because of this reality, "Places in the Heart" was critically acclaimed. On the other hand, there is a story of a blind guy, Mr. Will (John Malkovich) who moves into Edna's house and help her with almost everything. Unrelated to the main story among these three, we witness some other side stories in the town of Waxahachie, Texas, and these seemingly unrelated stories, focus on the reality of the lives that were lived around that era of 1930s.The harmony of side stories with the main story creates the strongest point of the film. As a drama and the atmosphere, "Places in the Heart" reminds me of Tender Mercies minus the songs. Soundtracks are not the strong points of this film, because it focuses on something directly related to the lives of white and black people once upon a time. The last scene of the film was in the church, where everyone, including the dead ones, gathered together drinking the wine and eating the bread. This somehow reveals the real purpose of the film. All the good and bad people are there together gathered around the god. "Places in the Heart" opens with a similar scene in the church. This film is a drama, it is a piece from real life, but in some scenes, I found myself unwillingly smiling. This is what happens to me when I watch a really good film. I always say for films like this, where nothing really happens, we just witness a period of time of some people's lives. "Places in the Heart" is a good example for this statement. Dresses and manners of people of that era are brilliant and real in the film, which made me ask, how we have arrived to the age of clowns from that era of gentlemen. To prove my statement, just go out sometime and observe people. The way they dress, the way they act and the way they talk will impress you. This is the beauty of old films. They help you make comparisons between eras, and make you understand and see towards where humanity is going. I know this has nothing to do with the film, but I had to mention this as well.

Many know the famous speech that the leading actress gave when she won her second Academy Award for this film, "I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" (often misquoted as "You like me! You really like me!"), I was looking forward to watching, from Oscar nominated director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer). Basically set in Waxahachie, Texas in 1935, a place where white people and white people mostly separate themselves from each other, Sheriff Royce Spalding (Ray Baker) is investigating trouble at the railroad when he is accidentally shot dead by young black boy Wylie (De'voreaux White), white vigilantes punish him dragging behind a truck for all the community to see, including Spalding's family. The Sheriff's wife Edna Spalding (Oscar and Golden Globe winning Sally Field) is now alone to take care of her small children Frank (Yankton Hatten) and Possum (Gennie James) and maintain the farm, added pressure comes from her other family, her sister Margaret Lomax (Oscar nominated Lindsay Crouse) who cannot help because of her own family and her beauty shop, and her husband's brother-in-law Mr. Will (Oscar nominated John Malkovich) blinded in the war who becomes a lodger on the farm. The cotton crop is planted for the farm to make it's money, money is scarce and worse news is that the price of cotton is decreasing, she gives black drifter Moze (Danny Glover) work without payment, giving him meals instead, the handyman though is not satisfied and steals silverware to make some money, he is caught in the act but forgiven as he is the one who knows the cotton growing and marketing. Edna is determined to keep the family together and preserve the farm, and she sees the opportunity to win money they need to keep going, Ellis County prize has a prize of $100 that will go to the first bale of cotton brought to market, but she needs more cotton pickers who cannot be paid, she joins those that she finds to help her, bleeding herself in the thorns to finish the work, while Will cooks the food to reward the workers. Edna and Moze are the first to the wholesaler and do everything they can to convince the owner of how much the cotton bale is worth, it is unclear as to whether they win the prize or not, and returning to the farm Moze is confronted by Ku Klux Klan members, he is rescued by Will, but he decides reluctantly to move on, while Viola Kelsey (Amy Madigan) is departing with her husband Buddy (Terry O'Quinn) to Houston, after ending an affair with Edna's brother-in-law. In the end the film finishes where it all started, in church where the community are taking communion, Wayne Lomax (Ed Harris) passes to Margaret, and the bread and wine goes from to character to character, both those who are still living and dead, and the last words are spoken by Wylie to the Sheriff, obviously it is his actions that later lead to everything else. Also starring Lois & Clark's Lane Smith as Albert Denby and Bert Remsen as Tee Tot Hightower. Field is wonderful as the feisty and endearing small- town farmer and mother who goes through pain and graft to support her family, Malkovich is likable as the blind man who bonds with her, Glover gets his moments as the black man who is vulnerable but helps, and Harris gets a few small scenes doing his usual good job. Set in the Depression Era you know it is going to be full of despair and other small harsh realities of life, seeing the bleeding hands picking the cotton is most compelling, obviously there are the heartwarming scenes as well with the family orientation and community values, and it is paced well, it is a pleasant and enjoyable period drama. It won the Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Benton, and it was nominated for Best Picture and Best Costume Design, and it was nominated the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Screenplay. Very good!

robert benton wrote this great book & he also directed the movie( how often does that happen! ). i've watch clips of this movie over the years. but never the whole movie...all i can say is wow! it reminds me a lot of john steinbeck novels. what a big difference for sally field from her " flying nun & gidget" days. shows us how good and evil men csn be. great cast that work very well together. i finally saw the whole movie today and it sicken me to my stomach and i wanted literally to just scream out as loud as i could at the injustices that men do to one another( the danny glover scene close to end of movie ) how can these southern landowners be called gentlemen and be god fearing when they got fat off of other peoples backbreaking work, the richest southerners were the one s that went to church and supposedly were god fearing men. the old money from the south are still around and they are still rich today. that money is easy to track down and some crusading lawyers should get together and shame them into giving up some of that money to help poor colored people or better yet help poor africans. i mean how do people live with themselves. they are the true devils, what are they doing going to church...where is god? anyway i hate injustice and i'm glad i finally watched the whole movie and in HD no less...a timeless classic not to be missed. all of u devils hiding behind u're smiling faces, if there is a god i hope u all get yours.

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 .