Places in the Heart (1984, USA) is one inspirational film from the 1980’s. There is a trial from the outset, later becoming a story of overcoming the odds.

The story

Bad news comes to the Deep South, 1935.

In the midst of the Great Depression, a death comes to the Spalding family.

On his duties as Sheriff, Edna Spalding’s husband is accidentally shot by a boy who is drunk.

This is the “inciting incident” (using Robert McKee’s term for the event that propels the story forward).

The inciting incident in Places in the Heart is a tragedy.

Edna becomes a widow who hasn’t enough money to pay back the bank. The bank wants her house as pay back.

As well, the black community is in mourning over one of their sons becoming a social statistic. Wiley’s accidental killing of the Sheriff is punished or avenged by others in the community.

Triumph over adversity

All the same, Places in the Heart is a story of triumph over adversity.

Help is on the way from an unlikely quarter in a period of time of heightened racial tensions and suspicion.

Moze (Danny Glover) is given an almost impossible chance to work with Edna (Sally Field) so she can pay the bank what is owed.

Moze is an expert at cotton farming and can advise Edna on how to go about it. If they can pick enough cotton to pay back the bank, they have won this moment in life.

The conclusion

This real life story is topped off by a remarkably moving ending, of what life can look like when people reconcile, and what life can look like as they draw from deeper wells, the things that can reinvigorate lives, the things that can draw people together rather than leaving them in unresolved disharmony and conflict.

Notes:

Sally Field (Edna Spalding), Lindsay Crouse (Margaret Lomax), Ed Harris (Wayne Lomax), Amy Madigan (Viola Kelsey), John Malkovich (Mr. Will), Danny Glover (Moze)

Robert Benton (Writer/Director)