Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsABFFPride MonthOutfest OutfrontsSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Places in the Heart

  • 1984
  • PG
  • 1h 51m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
13K
YOUR RATING
Sally Field, Yankton Hatten, and Gennie James in Places in the Heart (1984)
Watch Trailer
Play trailer2:37
2 Videos
85 Photos
Drama

In central Texas in the 1930s, a widow with two small children tries to save her small 40-acre farm with the help of a blind boarder and an itinerant black handyman.In central Texas in the 1930s, a widow with two small children tries to save her small 40-acre farm with the help of a blind boarder and an itinerant black handyman.In central Texas in the 1930s, a widow with two small children tries to save her small 40-acre farm with the help of a blind boarder and an itinerant black handyman.

  • Director
    • Robert Benton
  • Writer
    • Robert Benton
  • Stars
    • Sally Field
    • Lindsay Crouse
    • Ed Harris
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    13K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Robert Benton
    • Writer
      • Robert Benton
    • Stars
      • Sally Field
      • Lindsay Crouse
      • Ed Harris
    • 70User reviews
    • 33Critic reviews
    • 70Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 2 Oscars
      • 13 wins & 14 nominations total

    Videos2

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:37
    Watch Trailer
    Places In The Heart: I Was Afraid You Wasn't Going To Make It
    Clip 1:43
    Watch Places In The Heart: I Was Afraid You Wasn't Going To Make It

    Photos85

    Sally Field, Yankton Hatten, and Gennie James in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Sally Field in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Sally Field, Danny Glover, Ed Harris, and John Malkovich in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Sally Field, Danny Glover, Ed Harris, and John Malkovich in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Sally Field, Danny Glover, and Yankton Hatten in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Amy Madigan in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Sally Field in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Lane Smith in Places in the Heart (1984)
    John Malkovich and Gennie James in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Danny Glover in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Sally Field and Gennie James in Places in the Heart (1984)
    John Malkovich in Places in the Heart (1984)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Sally Field
    Sally Field
    • Edna Spalding
    Lindsay Crouse
    Lindsay Crouse
    • Margaret Lomax
    Ed Harris
    Ed Harris
    • Wayne Lomax
    Amy Madigan
    Amy Madigan
    • Viola Kelsey
    John Malkovich
    John Malkovich
    • Mr. Will
    Danny Glover
    Danny Glover
    • Moze
    Yankton Hatten
    • Frank
    Gennie James
    Gennie James
    • Possum
    Lane Smith
    Lane Smith
    • Albert Denby
    Terry O'Quinn
    Terry O'Quinn
    • Buddy Kelsey
    Bert Remsen
    Bert Remsen
    • Tee Tot Hightower
    Ray Baker
    Ray Baker
    • Royce Spalding
    Jay Patterson
    Jay Patterson
    • W.E. Simmons
    Toni Hudson
    Toni Hudson
    • Ermine
    De'voreaux White
    De'voreaux White
    • Wylie
    • (as DeVoreaux White)
    Jerry Haynes
    Jerry Haynes
    • Deputy Jack Driscoll
    Lou Hancock
    Lou Hancock
    • Dispossessed Lady
    Shelby Brammer
    • Ruby
    • Director
      • Robert Benton
    • Writer
      • Robert Benton
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Norma Rae
    7.3
    Norma Rae
    Coal Miner's Daughter
    7.5
    Coal Miner's Daughter
    On Golden Pond
    7.6
    On Golden Pond
    Children of a Lesser God
    7.2
    Children of a Lesser God
    Murphy's Romance
    7.0
    Murphy's Romance
    A Passage to India
    7.3
    A Passage to India
    Coming Home
    7.3
    Coming Home
    The Goodbye Girl
    7.4
    The Goodbye Girl
    Tender Mercies
    7.3
    Tender Mercies
    Heaven Can Wait
    6.9
    Heaven Can Wait
    A Soldier's Story
    7.2
    A Soldier's Story
    Absence of Malice
    6.9
    Absence of Malice

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Although they first met years earlier, actor Ed Harris and actress Amy Madigan got married after working together on this film.
    • Goofs
      The tornado winds upend cars and cause houses to explode, but Moze's hat stays on his head while he drags Frank into the storm cellar.
    • Quotes

      [first lines]

      Edna Spalding: [seeing her daughter's doll at the dinner table] Possum, put that up now.

      Royce Spalding: Our Heavenly Father, bless this meal and all those who are about to receive it. Make us thankful for Your generous bounty, and Your unceasing love. Please remind us, in these hard times, to be grateful for what we have been given, and not to ask for what we can not have. And make us mindful of those less fortunate among us, as we sit at this table with all of Thy bounty. Amen.

    • Alternate versions
      NBC edited 2 minutes from this film for its 1987 network television premiere.
    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: All of Me/Amadeus/Places in the Heart/Until September (1984)
    • Soundtracks
      In The Garden
      Words and Music by Austin Miles

    User reviews70

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    Our Own Blessed Assurance Of A Beautiful Garden Of Fellowship
    When Robert Benton wrote and directed Places in the Heart he created his own Citizen Kane. Like Orson Welles he will spend the rest of his life trying to better it and won't succeed.

    Places in the Heart takes place in Waxahachie, Texas in 1935 and our director was born there in 1932. The film is a personal vision of his childhood in that small Texas town. It bears a whole lot of resemblance to To Kill a Mockingbird, except that the adult protagonist is not a widower lawyer, but the widowed wife of a sheriff left to fend for herself after her husband is killed.

    Benton creates his characters with a loving hand, but that does not mean he doesn't see the flaws in the people there, the racism, the sexism, the hypocrisy and the pettiness. Field's husband, Ray Baker, is killed by a drunken black man accidentally. Killing a law enforcement official probably would have gotten him legally executed in any event, but the town administers its own brand of justice to the perpetrator.

    That being said, it still doesn't solve the problem of a woman who has no education or training to support herself and her family. Sally gets the idea to grow cotton on the few acres her husband left her and gets a pair of strange allies in John Malkovich and Danny Glover to help her.

    Glover is an itinerant hobo who is the one who if he knows anything knows cotton from his sharecropping background. He's who really holds the family together in the crisis. John Malkovich is a blind man whose brother-in-law is unctuous town banker, Lane Smith, who essentially dumps him on Field because he doesn't want to care for him. Malkovich who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor proves to be a faithful friend.

    Lindsay Crouse was nominated for Best Supporting Actress as Field's sister. There's a subplot in the film involving her and her philandering husband Ed Harris.

    Robert Benton won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Director and Sally Field won her second Oscar for Places in the Heart. Her character isn't as feisty as her first Oscar winner, Norma Rae, but Edna Spalding certainly has the same grit.

    Period country and gospel music make up the soundtrack for Places in the Heart. Old line Protestant hymns Blessed Assurance begins the film and In The Garden is the theme for the surreal ending.

    I can't describe the ending except that it is one of the most beautiful in the history of cinema. It's a vision of what promise we have either in heaven or a utopia we make on earth where the things that divide humankind are washed away and we are in fellowship with each other and our Maker.

    You have to have a heart of diamond if you are not moved by Places in the Heart.
    helpful•78
    10
    • bkoganbing
    • Aug 14, 2007

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 5, 1984 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Sony Movie Channel (United States)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Texas Project
    • Filming locations
      • Waxahachie, Texas, USA
    • Production companies
      • Delphi II Productions
      • TriStar Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $34,901,614
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $274,279
      • Sep 23, 1984
    • Gross worldwide
      • $34,901,614
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 51 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Sally Field, Yankton Hatten, and Gennie James in Places in the Heart (1984)
    Top Gap
    By what name was Places in the Heart (1984) officially released in India in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.