PLACES IN THE HEART: Profile of Robert Benton & Sally Field

“Please, dear God, don’t let it end here.  Not in Waxahachie.”

By Phil LeConte

[Originally published in Xtra Magazine 1985.]

On December 7, 1980, actor Ernest Borgnine was wheeled into Tenery Community Hospital in Waxahachie, Texas.  Moments earlier, he had been thrown from a carriage during the filming of the horror movie Deadly Blessing.  Borgnine now lay on his back, the victim of an ugly expression of life imitating art.

A glut of doctors and curiosity seekers gathered around his broken body.  As their faces grew near, Borgnine reportedly mumbled, “Please, dear God, don’t let it end here.  Not in Waxahachie.”

Waxahachie lies just off the center of the state, the heart of the Lone Star.  If one’s to be a native Texan, he might as well be from Waxahachie.

Local citizens will say that nothing much has changed around here for fifty years, but that’s not quite true.  In recent years, a different breed of critter – the Californian has crossed the plains to settle in this quaint little town.

This untouched piece of Americana has been invaded by filmmakers, and suddenly Waxahachie is more than just a pit stop between Dallas and Austin.

Oscar-winner Horton Foote’s Tender Mercies, his recently completed 1918, Shelly Winters’ forthcoming film Ellie and several television projects have all been shot here.

Waxahachie – the third coast?  The ideal middle ground between Los Angeles and New York?  The Waxahachie Chamber of Commerce is not holding its breath.  Yet over the last four years, hardly a month has passed without some film project shooting in the area.

Late last year, one of Waxahachie’s own came home:  Writer-director Robert Benton returned to his roots last year to film Places in the Heart and he took Sally Field with him.

Benton pounds his fist on the table top and doubles over with laughter.  “Oh God,” he blurts out.  “I can’t tell you how funny that is.”  Benton stands up and looks out the window of this suite in Dallas’ Mansion Hotel.  He signs and sits back down.  “Oh, if you have any sense of humor, you have to find humor in that.”

Benton has just been informed that there is a rumor going around Waxahachie that Warner Brothers is buying up property in the city for location shooting on the new George Lucas movie.

Robert Benton“You know, I was shooting down there in the spring, doing pick-up shots.  Just down the street, another film was shooting and I thought, right now, this minute, there is one more film shooting in New York City and there is in Waxahachie, Texas.

This is one of many stops for Benton on the movie’s promotional tour.  Tri-Star Pictures is pushing the film hard to the national press, depending heavily on favorable word-of-mouth to sell the film to the public.

Benton’s tribute to his home town doesn’t exactly sign with commercial flair.  The story revolves around a recently widowed mother of two small children and her struggle to keep the farm, pay the mortgage, get the crop in and survive the Great Depression.

“Part of the reason I did this picture was to try to figure a way to reconcile my past.

“Part of the reason I did this picture was to try to figure a way to reconcile my past.  I wanted to go home again.  I haven’t been there in over thirty years.”  Benton explains.  “I turned fifty when I started this picture.  My aim was to try to describe parts of my life, life as it was – as it is no more.”

Benton leisurely leans back on his chair as he speaks, tipping the front legs high off the floor.  Why is this man so at east?  A film as good-natured as Places in the Heart is going to be a hard sell.  Benton knows this, but his face doesn’t register apprehension.  His is a film career that has hit the extremes.  Win or lose, it’s going to be familiar turf for Benton.

Not so long ago, Benton was Hollywood’s golden boy, with two Oscars in his pocket for Kramer vs. Kramer. Benton was suddenly a major leaguer on the volatile Hollywood roster.

Kramer vs. Kramer drummed up both prestige and box-office, winning combination in Hollywood.  Contrary to popular belief, there are many in the business who feel a latent allegiance to some higher art, especially profitable higher art.

The honeymoon was not to last long.  Benton’s next film, Still of the Night contributed little to his mantel.  Prestige and punch were a thing of the past.  The same critics who had lauded over Dustin, Meryl and Justin were now flying lazy circles.

If you go out and talk to any twenty people and ask who won the Oscar last, they’re not going to remember.

Benton is the first to admit that the glory from the Oscar win soon fades.  “The amount of people who know about the Oscar are relatively few.  If you go out and talk to any twenty people and ask who won the Oscar last, they’re not going to remember.”

He appears to be on the rebound now that Places in the Heart is winning favor from the critics.  This movie is a step back into a familiar formula; even the press kit for the film acknowledges that Places in the Heart is a “return to Kramer vs. Kramer territory.”

With Places, Benton has fled the metropolitan problems of New York City and has landed in 1930’s Waxahachie.  Perhaps the best move he makes along the way is the selection of Sally Field for the lead role of Edna Spalding, the young widow who must find a way to support her children.

When the director speaks of her performance in the movie, one can detect a genuine elation in his voice.  “I’ve told her that I think she’s great once or twice and she always gets terribly embarrassed:  She has got the ability to draw upon the deepest parts of herself without intellectualizing or trusting to luck.”

Perhaps Benton’s rocky experiences on the set with Dustin Hoffman made him appreciate Field’s unquestioning collaboration.  “If I said to Sally, ‘Open the window and jump out,’ she wouldn’t ask why, she wouldn’t ask if there were a cushion down there, she would say ‘Okay, I hope we get it on the first take.”

He even finds reason to praise Field’s early career.  “Whatever she’s done, whether it’s been the Flying Nun or Gidget, everyone has assumed that this is what she is really like,” Benton notes.  “She’s been so good at those roles that she’s simply become those characters.”
Sally Field
He leans forward and speaks emphatically into the open mike:  “I just think she’s a great artist.”

“Never wear them again!"

Five minutes later the lady herself is pinching a corner of my Generra pants and shaking her head.  “I have these pants,” she exclaims to a female aid next to her.  “Never wear them again,” she says to me.

I agree, although I doubt we’ll be hitting the same parties.  Field is the first to admit she doesn’t get out much.  In fact she seems untouched by the slick West Coast style.  There’s no way to overlook her simple, down-to-earth appeal.

The Mansion seems like unusually plush surroundings for this self-proclaimed “stick-in-the-mud,” but if Field is currently wallowing in luxury, one can hardly blame her.  She spent most of the last year working under the hot Texas sun.

“Places in the Heart took a lot of stamina, especially a role as emotional as this one,”  Field points out.  “The rest of the crew would come up to Dallas for dinner or something, but I just couldn’t do it.  I don’t know where they got the energy.  I just stayed home and watched the nine o’clock movie on TV."

Despite countless press interviews, Field still speaks of the film with an admittedly adorable sense of enthusiasm.  There’s a pleasant determination in her manner.  It’s as though she feels obligated not to disappoint a visitor’s expectations. (Possibly my reward for not dredging up Burt Reynolds or to how she achieved flight in The Flying Nun.)

I started out in such ridiculous shows!

“I started out in such ridiculous shows!  When my friend Richard Dreyfuss read ‘Sally Field’ as winner of the Academy Award, I remember saying, ‘Goddammit, I did it!  I did it!’  As I walked up to get the award, I just kept swearing.”

There is a strong instinct for survival in Field.  Indeed Places in the Heart may turn out to be the career-boost which both Field and Benton need.

While Benton was riding the success of Kramer vs. Kramer, Field’s performance in Norma Rae was giving her career the critical validation it desperately needed.  In 1980 Benton and Field made the award show rounds, Kramer picking up writing and directing honors for Benton, Field snatching up nearly every best actress award.

They were a winning combination.  Both films were celebrations of ordinary people.  In one case, a man is forced into the traditional role of a woman; in the other, a woman is thrust into conflict with the male hierarchy.

Yet, what goes up must come down.  In subsequent years their sudden success became tarnished:  Benton’s Still of the Night perfectly complimented Field’s Back Roads, Kiss Me Goodbye and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure.

Benton and Field had fallen from grace.  The timing seemed right for a rendezvous in Waxahachie.  Both have roots in these parts; both need to return to earthy storytelling.

Places in the Heart features many of the elements that Benton and Field have built a reputation on:  the portrayal of family, motherhood, and a detailed rendering of common existence.

Benton’s human touch initially drew Field into the project.  “I read the script and it knocked me out,” Field remembers.  “It’s surely the finest script I’ve ever read.  Robert Benton has a great morality.  In this business it’s odd to meet someone who values his dignity.  You can see it on the screen, you see the caring.”

Certainly, great care was used to translate his screenplay to film.  Benton, with a shrewd eye for detail, frames this movie like a Norman Rockwell painting.

His characters are reportedly based on people from Waxahachie’s past.  The actors all deliver their lines with studied professionalism.  Yet watching this self-consciously down-to-earth drama unfold, one can’t help imagining that Waxahachie’s originals were more ornery and spirited than the performers in Places in the Heart.

Benton doesn’t go for razzle-dazzle, figuring the sober leftovers would pass for truth.  Although the KKK does make a guest appearance in this rural setting, Benton is more interested in giving us rustic folksiness and hymns you can hum to.

The final scene pans across the faces of the community as they take Sunday communion.  It’s a touching depiction of forgiveness and small-town interdependence.  Yet, how many of these church goers don white hoods on Sunday night?  Benton works so well within his own simple framework, it’s a shame he doesn’t push the action beyond our expectations to pick at the ironies.

Places in the Heart is a mixed blessing.  What Benton gives us works well on its own terms:  picturesque landscapes, charming country lanes and soon-to-be resolved domestic conflicts.  Benton is a skilled storyteller, with a unique sense of dignity and reverence for his subjects.

What spunkiness the movie does possess is due to Sally Field’s performance.  She imbues her character with such a familiar human quality that the audiences react to her immediately.  She has a casual screen manner, a natural style that protects her against any false moves.

Places in the Heart may well be the hit Benton and Field are looking for:  last month, it won raves at the Toronto Film Festival; critics nationwide have praised the movie.

One question does remain unanswered:  Will it play in Waxahachie?

The question doesn’t seem to trouble Field.  Once the film is in the can, she claims to be an impartial observer.  “I don’t worry if the film will be a hit or not.  I can’t put my heart in something I have no control over.  I’ve done my work, and I’m very proud of this film.  I have to let the chips fall where they may.”

Benton doesn’t expect raves from his hometown.  “They have known me for fifty years.  They’ve seen me make a fool of myself a lot of times.  This is just one more cockamamie thing I’m doing.  They really don’t take me very seriously."