Places in the Heart

Places in the Heart is a 1984 film drama staring Sally Field, Danny Glover and John Malkovich.  It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning two:  Best Actress (Field) and Best Original Screenplay (Robert Benton - see blog post Kramer vs. Kramer).

It's the story of a young widow, Mrs. Spalding (Field), with two children who is trying to survive on a cotton farm in Waxahachie, Texas, during the Depression.  She is aided by an itinerant black man, Moses (Glover), and a blind white man, Mr. Will (Malkovich - nominated for Best Supporting Actor, which was won by Haing S. Ngor for The Killing Fields).

In order to keep her farm and her children, Mrs. Spalding needs to win the Ellis County contest, a $100 cash prize awarded to the farmer who produces the first bale of cotton for market each season.  Everyone in the family worked to achieve the goal plus Moses recruited other black migrant workers.  She won the prize.

"Moses carefully coaches Mrs. Spalding on how to negotiate with the (cotton) buyer" so he wouldn't be able to take advantage of her inexperience.  That night, in order to teach Moses a lesson, the buyer organizes the local KKK to savagely beat him.  Mr. Will is able to recognize the voices of the hooded men and identifies them by name.  It save the life of Moses, but he has to leave Waxahachie.

The end of the film is quite remarkable.  The scene takes place in the local Baptist church during a Sunday morning service, with Mrs. Spalding and her children plus Mr. Will in attendance.

Preacher (Lynn D. Lasswell, Jr.):  This morning, we picked our text from First Corinthians, Thirteenth Chapter, Verses one through eight (The Way of Love).  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol.  Though I have the gift of prophesy and all knowledge, and have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.  Love is patient, kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful.  Love never ends."   

You know something strange is happening when you see Moses, a black man seated in a segregated white church, taking communion with all the others.  The final frame shows Mrs. Spalding's deceased husband Royce passing the wine (the blood of Christ) to Wylie, the young black man who accidentally killed him, and who himself was murdered by vigilantes.

Movie critics called the ending "a climax that with amazing grace moves almost imperceptibly from reality to fantasy in order to find for people a kind of reconciliation with their fate."  To me, the ending symbolizes love and forgiveness.
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I will be on vacation the next two Sundays.  Next post will be Sunday, September 22.