Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Places in the Heart Blu-ray Movie Review

You'll like it, you'll really like it.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 16, 2015

Though it has (incorrectly) entered the lexicon of famous acceptance speeches, Sally Field did not gush “You like me, you really like me” when she picked up her second Academy Award for Places in the Heart in 1985. The actress, who was perhaps understandably moved to be taking home a “follow up” statuette (after her previous win for Norma Rae), did seem to be somewhat amazed that the high-falutin’ film industry should be granting her such acclaim after a career that included lovable if hardly award bait material like television’s Gidget and The Flying Nun, not to mention a string of lightweight fare made with her erstwhile boyfriend Burt Reynolds. And while some curmudgeons may have felt (and perhaps continue to feel) that Field was simply doing “Norma Rae on a farm in the 1930s” in Places in the Heart, Robert Benton’s elegiac film nonetheless works up a considerable amount of emotion in its depiction of a hardscrabble life in rural Texas at the height not just of the Great Depression but the infamous Dust Bowl as well.

Note: For those (few?) who have never seen Places in the Heart, there are at least a couple of unavoidable plot points which must be discussed which some may feel are "spoilers" (though the film's own trailer, included on this Blu-ray, reveals the same supposed "spoilers" pretty much right off the bat). Those folks are encouraged to skip to the technical parts of the review, below.

When a title card appears announcing the location of the story as the seemingly improbably named Waxahachie, Texas, some viewers may feel they’ve wandered into the whimsical world of writer-director Robert Benton’s vivid imagination, though as Sally Field mentions repeatedly in her often sweet commentary for this Blu-ray, there is an honest to goodness town called Waxahachie, and Benton in fact grew up in it and based Field’s character of Edna Spalding at least partially on his own grandmother. The Spalding family seems like the very model of mid-thirties southern American decorum, gathering around a dinner table to enjoy fried chicken that Edna has lovingly just fried up her sheriff husband Royce (Ray Baker) and their two adorable children. Trouble at the nearby rail yard interrupts the family dinner and causes Royce to have to go investigate, where horrifying tragedy results, leaving Edna a widow without much idea of how to run the family farm.

There’s such a visceral shock to the seemingly random death of Royce that may potentially throw some viewers for a loop, at least initially, but it plunges Edna into a new reality that she simply has to accept and make the best of any way that she can. Within what seems like mere moments, an unctuous bank loan officer named Albert Denby (Lane Smith) gives Edna a not so pretty picture of her accounts, coming to the conclusion that the best option for the newly “minted” widow is to sell the farm and live on the proceeds for as long as she can. Edna seems loathe to even consider such an idea, and when a black drifter named Moses (Danny Glover) wanders by asking for work and insisting he’s an expert at planting cotton, a fitful spark of imagination starts to burn within Edna’s fragile psyche.

Meanwhile Benton has begun to detail another interlinked story involving Edna’s sister Margaret Lomax (Linsdsay Crouse), who is married to a ne’er-do-well named Wayne (Ed Harris) who, in true total louse fashion, is carrying on an affair with Margaret’s best (married) friend Viola Kelsey (Amy Madigan). There’s a claustrophobic air to the depiction of Waxahachie, as if everyone is in everyone else’s business, for good or ill, though with the ability of some to elude prying eyes to cheat on their spouses. While that spawns a sense of community (again, for good or ill), it also tends to shove various contingencies underneath Edna’s nose when she really doesn’t want to be bothered. This aspect ultimately plays out with Denby, who is having none of Moze’s supposed “expertise” and how it can potentially save the Spalding farm, returning to Edna’s home with his blind brother-in-law Mr. Will (John Malkovich) in tow, “suggesting” (meaning more or less insisting) that Edna take the prickly guy in as a boarder so that she at least has some income.

That finally sets up the central troika around which much (if not all) of the ensuing plot dynamics revolve, with Edna's attempts to save her farm with the help of Moze and Mr. Will remaining mostly front and center. What’s so brilliantly done throughout this film is not just its redolent, almost palpable, reproduction of time and place, but an almost luxuriously languourous pace where character “arcs” are evolved organically rather than through silly and contrived plot machinations (though some may aver a big storm scene later in the film is overly affected). Take for example a quiet, even relatively uneventful scene, where Edna is taking a bath and Mr. Will discovers that Edna’s kids have been playing with his phonograph. He barges into the bathroom, unaware that it is a bathroom, and begins berating Edna. She’s understandably a bit stunned, though at least knows he’s blind, but there’s an incredible little moment where Will reaches down and touches the bath water, suddenly understanding where he is and where Edna is, and the change in temperament is both astounding and realistic. Over and over again, Benton employs this minimalism to astounding effect, ultimately delivering an emotionally overwhelming offering that explores a number of nooks and crannies of the heart.

Places in the Heart Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Places in the Heart is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Reportedly culled from a new 4K scan supervised by the typically unassailable team at Sony-Columbia headed by Grover Crisp, Places in the Heart may not "pop" in the traditional sense, due to Néstor Almendros' sienna tinged cinematography, but as an organic, accurate looking recreation of the original film, this transfer is top notch. While browns and other dusky tones tend to predominate, the film still offers brief splashes of brighter primaries and even occasional subtler pastel hues, but there's a certain drabness and even dowdiness to the palette here that is perfectly in character with the time and socioeconomics being portrayed. Detail is excellent throughout the presentation, and fine detail in close-ups is also abundant. There are no issues with resolving fine patterns as varied as checkered suits to swirling dust particles. Grain is completely natural looking and always resolves beautifully. Some curmudgeons may have momentary issues with what can verge perilously close to crush or at least a lack of shadow detail— keep an eye, for example, on the early wake scene, where some guys in black jackets walk through the night outside and their clothing does tend to merge in with the background.

Places in the Heart Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Places in the Heart features a workmanlike DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track which offers surprisingly robust support for effects like the big storm scene late in the film, as well as "calmer" elements like the ambient environmental sounds around the farm and dialogue. John Kander's roots inflected score is also reproduced with clarity and precision.

Places in the Heart Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. (This is one of the rare dramatic scores by Broadway legend John Kander, who with Fred Ebb created such iconic stage musicals as Cabaret and Chicago.)


• Original Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:30)


• Audio Commentary features Sally Field hosted by Nick Redman.

Places in the Heart Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A widow who overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles through sheer grit and determination may seem like a veritable oft told tale, but in Benton's hands the story is a beautifully wrought character study, including the "character" of time and place. Benton obviously absorbed the "vibe" of Waxahachie whole cloth (to mix metaphors), and Places in the Heart is one of the most evocative recreations of a specific time and place ever committed to celluloid. The performances are astonishing in their breadth and nuance (Field's Oscar win is of course well remembered to this day—if not always accurately, but Malkovich and Crouse also were Academy Award nominated for their work.) With gorgeously understated cinematography by the legendary Néstor Almendros (who rather amazingly was not Oscar nominated) and a firm hand on both the writing and directing duties by Robert Benton, Places in the Heart is quite simply a lovely and incredibly touching viewing experience. This new transfer features superb video and excellent audio and comes Highly recommended.