Rural childhood memories relived with stvle and taste

Press, 18 March 1985, Page 42

Rural childhood memories relived with stvle and taste

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hans petrovic

PLACES IN THE HEART Written and directed by Robert Benton “Places in the Heart” (Westend) is more than just a story, it is a fond remembrance of the mood and essence of another time and place. There is no urgency in the film, yet one feels that the writer-director, Robert Benton, has set out specifically to recapture, while it is still possible, his childhood memories of rural Texas during the 19305. With a deft touch and a caring eye, he has managed to place on celluloid the slow but deep currents that flow through a small community, there is loving care and nuance placed on every petty particular — even motes of dust come within his vision. Benton brings back those wide, parched plains he remembers from childhood, iind sees them again in the light of memory. To help him here, he has the services of the outstanding cinematographer, Nestor Almendros, who won the 1978 Oscar for similar work in “Days of Heaven.” (Almendros had already established an international reputation for shooting eight films with Eric Rohmer, including “My Night at Maude’s” and “Pauline at the Beach,” nine for Fran-

cois Truffaut, including “The Story of Adele H.” and “The Last Metro,” and with Benton in “Kramer vs Kramer.”) Many characters and incidents from Benton’s childhood are brought back, and tied together in the simple story of the struggle for survival by Edna Spaldin (Sally Field), a widowed mother of two. After her husband, the local sheriff, is killed in a shooting incident, Edna is forced to fight to save her farm from repossession. In the process, Edna takes in the help of an itinerant black (Danny Glover), who helps her growing cotton; and a bitter but gentle blind man (John Malkovich), as a lodger. Besides the all-permea-ting poverty of the 1930 s Depression, the plucky widow also has to cope with human threats, in the form of a greedy banker, a crooked cotton dealer and even the Ku Klux Klan; and the natural elements, in the form of a hurricane. Matters come to a climax at the frantic cotton-picking time. To underline the frustrations of small-town living, a sub-plot gently touches on the affair by the husband of Edna’s sister with another womn. All is revealed and healed with hardly a word spoken.

The performances by all the actors are low-key yet strong. Little need be said about Sally Field’s acting ability. She recently showed her dazzling virtuosity as a mul-tiple-personality in the TV series, “Sybil,” and has already won one Academy Award for her performance in “Norma Rae.” With “Places in the Heart,” she has a very good chance of getting her second Oscar. Also impressive was Glover as a seemingly humble but resourceful “nigger.” Malkovich displays his peculiar presence and

strength in his first film role as a blind man, from which he went on’to play the photographer in “The Killing Fields.” Harris also is excellent as the philandering husband; seemingly innocent but underhand, he is the kind of man you have to keep an eye on. Last year, he gave two fine performances as John Glenn in “The Right Stuff,” and the mercenary in “Under Fire.” Above all else, however, this is Robert Benton’s film. During an extraordinary trip to his childhood town of Waxahachie, Texas (where “Places in the Heart” was later filmed), with his wife and son, Benton found he wanted to confront his past. He took his son to see where his great-grandfather and namesake, the town’s sheriff, had been shot. They saw the room where Benton’s blind great-uncle made cane chairs and brooms. They rode out to the land where his widowed great-

grandmother farmed ’ and Benton told his son of the black man who lived in a shack on the edge of the property helping her farm the land and look after the children. Now, in semi-fictitious form, all these characters have been brought back to life. Benton also makes his final point by showing that these people grew to understand that there could be no peace, joy or love without forgiveness. Thus, during Holy Communion at the end of this down-to-earth tale, realising what the director is up to comes as a pleasant jolt. Due for release soon are two other films from Hollywood about saving the farm from the elements and economic ruin — “The River” and “Country.” They will find it a battle to keep up to the standard already set by “Places in the Heart.”