History Film / PlacesInTheHeart

* HandicappedBadass: Even though he's blind, Mr. Will manages to make surprisingly accurate shots at the Klansmen by aiming at the direction of their voices and footsteps.

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1935, Waxahatchie, Texas, America deep in the grip of TheGreatDepression. Royce Spalding, the town sheriff, goes out to deal with an intoxicated black teenager who is taking random potshots with a revolver down by the railroad tracks. The boy, Wylie, accidentally shoots Royce in the chest, and he dies. Wylie is promptly lynched by the white men of the town.

Royce's wife Edna (Creator/SallyField) is left a widow with two young children. Edna has spent her whole life homemaking and has no earthly idea about how to handle money--she doesn't even know how much her husband made. She's unpleasantly surprised to find out that their farm is heavily mortgaged, and if she can't come up with the payment for the bank by October, she and her children will be homeless.

Enter Moses (Creator/DannyGlover) a homeless, hungry laborer. Moses offers to do chores around the Spalding farm for nothing more than room and board. When he finds out about Edna's dilemma he suggests she plant cotton, a lucrative cash crop, in order to raise the money to keep the farm. Edna supplements her income by taking in as a boarder a blind man, Mr. Will (Creator/JohnMalkovich). However, the falling price of cotton puts Edna's home and the survival of her family in greater danger.

A parallel plot follows Edna's sister Margaret (Creator/LindsayCrouse), married to Wayne Lomax (Creator/EdHarris). Wayne is having an affair with the town schoolteacher, Viola Kelsey (Creator/AmyMadigan). Viola's husband Buddy is played by Creator/TerryOQuinn.

Sally Field's acceptance of her second Best Actress Oscar for her role in this film led to one of the most {{Narm}}-tastic moments in UsefulNotes/AcademyAward history. An emotional Field said to the audience, "I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!"--often [[BeamMeUpScotty misquoted as]] "you like me, you really like me!"

* DeterminedWidow: Edna has to do some growing up very, very fast after her husband is killed. She ignores the man from the bank who wants her to give up and sell the house; she ignores Moses when he tells her that there's no way they'll be able to pick the cotton in time to win the $100 prize. Edna ''will not'' lose the house.

* GainaxEnding: The final scene takes place in a church service. At first it seems like a normal service, grounded in realism like the rest of the film, with Edna and her family and only a couple of others in the congregation. But as communion is passed around, nearly every character previously seen in the film--friend and foe, good and bad, living and dead, in fact everyone except for Buddy and Margaret--is seen taking part in the communion. The final shot is completely startling and unexpected, but it forces the viewer to rethink everything we've seen before, and the way it suggests grace and reconciliation qualifies as a genuine tear jerker.

A parallel plot follows Edna's sister Margaret, married to Wayne Lomax (Creator/EdHarris). Wayne is having an affair with the town schoolteacher, Viola. Viola's husband Buddy is played by Creator/TerryOQuinn.

* ShutUpGunshot: Mr. Will does this to get the attention of the Klansmen who are beating on Moses.
* YourCheatingHeart: Wayne is having an affair with Vi. Both of them are married.

1935, Waxahatchie, Texas, America deep in the grip of UsefulNotes/TheGreatDepression. Royce Spalding, the town sheriff, goes out to deal with an intoxicated black teenager who is taking random potshots with a revolver down by the railroad tracks. The boy, Wylie, accidentally shoots Royce in the chest, and he dies. Wylie is promptly lynched by the white men of the town.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0772_4.JPG]]

* GainaxEnding: The final scene takes place in a church service. At first it seems like a normal service, grounded in realism like the rest of the film, but as communion is passed around, nearly every character previously seen in the film—friend and foe, good and bad, living and dead—is seen taking part in the communion. The final shot is completely startling and unexpected, but it forces the viewer to rethink everything we've seen before, and the way it suggests grace and reconciliation qualifies as a genuine tear jerker. (Note also that those four people are not in the congregation at the start of the scene. And for that matter, while the first shot of the congregation shows the pews rather thinly populated, the later shot of communion shows every character in the movie except for Wayne and Margaret.)

A parallel plot follows Edna's sister Margaret, married to Wayne Lomax (Creator/EdHarris). Wayne is having an affair with the town schoolteacher, Viola.

* PlotTriggeringDeath: Royce's random, senseless death starts the story, as Edna has to battle to keep her home and farm.

* GainaxEnding: The final scene takes place in a church service. At first it seems like a normal service, grounded in realism like the rest of the film, but as communion is passed around, nearly every character previously seen in the film—friend and foe, good and bad, living and dead—is seen taking part in the communion. The final shot is completely startling and unexpected, but it forces the viewer to rethink everything we've seen before, and the way it suggests grace and reconciliation qualifies as a genuine tear jerker. (Note also that those four people are not in the congregation at the start of the scene.)

* ButNowIMustGo

* GainaxEnding: The final scene takes place in a church service. At first it seems like a normal service, grounded in realism like the rest of the film, but as communion is passed around, nearly every character previously seen in the film—friend and foe, good and bad, living and dead—is seen taking part in the communion. The final shot is completely startling and unexpected, but it forces the viewer to rethink everything we've seen before, and the way it suggests grace and reconciliation qualifies as a genuine tear jerker.

* EveryoneComesBackFantasyPartyEnding: The final scene seems at first to be a simple church service. It is revealed to be something more symbolic when first Moses is shown (he was chased out of town by the KKK in the previous scene), and then everyone who has died in the movie--Royce, Wylie, and the old lady who was killed by the tornado--also are are shown in the congregation along with Edna and the rest.

* DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: Averted. No funnel cloud is ever seen, and the damage to the town from the tornado is catastrophic.

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