Places in the Heart

Name: Places in the Heart
Genre: Drama
Released: October 5, 1984
Duration: 111 min
Rating: 70
Cast: Amy Madigan, Danny Glover, Ed Harris, Gennie James, John Malkovich

1984

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Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews

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Universal acclaim based on 8 Ratings

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8.1	User Score Universal acclaim based on 8 Ratings

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Places In The Heart: I Was Afraid You Wasn't Going To Make It

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Movie Details & Credits

TriStar Pictures | Release Date: October 5, 1984 | PG

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

Summary: In central Texas in the 1930s, a widow, with two small children, tries to run her small 40-acre farm with the help of two disparate people.

Director: Robert Benton

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: PG

Runtime: 111 min

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Critic Reviews

Bob Thomas

As with the best of memoirs, the film bears the verisimilitude of true art. It is a movie filled with small marvels, a welcome addition to the prestige films of fall. [02 Oct 1984]

Jay Scott

Sweet and relatively simple, a classic episodic melodrama of unabashed tenderness and unapologetic warmth, but it's not sentimental, and its offhanded explication of racism in rural Texas in 1935 is integrated so seamlessly with its dramatization of the widow Spalding's crusade to keep her farm, that the dark undercurrents of the film are easy to overlook.

Laurie Horn

Places in the Heart is set in another time and place. But it becomes universal because it is also a personal story of an artist turning from the safe confessional platitudes of Yuppiedom to a more mature confrontation with the complexities in his own past. [05 Oct 1984, p.C1]

Megan Rosenfeld

Places in the Heart grapples with great and important themes -- sexism, racism, grief, despair -- and in aiming high it achieves much. Not quite as much, perhaps, as its primary creator, Robert Benton, might have hoped for, but enough to make it a distinguished film that is both moving and provocative. [21 Sep 1984, p.C1]

David Sterritt

Sentimental from the moment the title hits the screen. But it's a nice kind of sentimentality, based on real affection for the characters and real involvement with a place and time. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

Director Robert Benton effectively re-creates depression-era Texas in this moving tale that landed the second Oscar for Field. Read full review

Dave Kehr

There's nothing but sheer manipulativeness holding this picture together. Read full review

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KenR

Nov 8, 2022

Places In The Heart – Takes Its Place Among the Better Entries of the 80s

This uncommon film offers a thinking man’s look at life in the Deep South --from both sides of the color bar-- It’s different because it attempts to show the good and bad from several viewpoints. OK, perhaps it mightPlaces In The Heart – Takes Its Place Among the Better Entries of the 80s

This uncommon film offers a thinking man’s look at life in the Deep South --from both sides of the color bar-- It’s different because it attempts to show the good and bad from several viewpoints. OK, perhaps it might be said there’s a little too much time spent on the Sisters affair, but everything else is special. Performances are impressive, especially Sally Field and her immediate main co-stars. An important contribution to its success must be attributed to highly regarded Spanish cinematographer Nestor Almendros (Days Of Heaven ’78) who lovingly captures natural sweeping vistas, even when they are being earnt with blood sweat, and tears. But it's Robert (Kramer V/S Kramer ’79) Benton’s thoughtful script and direction that breaths believable life into these hard working characters – amid recollections of his own youth. Life is hard for these farmers in the backwoods of Waxahachie Texas during the 1935 depression, especially when personal tragedy strikes early in the story.

John Kandor (Cabaret ’66) creates an original score comprising several standards and traditional pieces, setting the era nicely. This highly Awarded picture (2 Academy’s & 5 nominations) probably wouldn’t get more than a passing look-in among today’s mega budget-comic book Hollywood, but was certainly a breath of fresh air in 1984. Sally Field seems to have had a poor self-image judging from her curious and oft mocked acceptance speech but certainly worked hard and deserved her honors, as she did for her earlier ‘Norma Rae’ in ‘79. For those that enjoy slice-of-life dramas about times past, this should still prove interesting. Benton’s beguiling choice for ending his story certainly makes for a solid examination of life’s more enigmatic outcomes.… Expand

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