Director Richard Pearce's 1979 feature debut is based on the true story of Elinore Randall (luminously played by Conchata Ferrell), who travels with her daughter by train to take a job as housekeeper for rancher Clyde Stewart (an equally impressive turn by Rip Torn) in Burnt Fork, Wyoming, circa 1910. In addition to simply being a beautifully filmed story, two aspects of Heartland really stand out: first, the perspective of the frontier as seen through the eyes of a smart, ambitious, single woman (covered in the very informative commentary with screenwriter Beth Ferris and executive producer Annick Smith); and second, the stunning realism (the killing of a pig, branding of cattle, and birth of a calf make this tough watching at times). Nicely rendered on disc, this sleeper deserves a much wider audience. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)
Heartland
Hen's Tooth, 96 min., PG, $29.95 Vol. 16, Issue 1
Heartland
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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