Movie Review by Greg Goodsell
Edna Spalding (Sally Field, in her second Oscar win for Best Actress) is a Depression-era mother of two small children who suffers an incredible tragedy. Her sheriff husband is killed by accident in a drunken altercation with a black teenager. Justice in small town Texas in 1935 being what it is, the kid is dragged behind a truck as her husband’s body is laid out on the kitchen table prior to burial. Unable to write a check, let alone earn a living, the town’s slimy banker (Lane Smith) reminds Edna she has less than $200 saved and suggests she sell her farm, move in with relatives or put her kids in an orphanage. Edna balks at this, and sticks to her guns.
Opportunity literally comes knocking in the form of black hobo Moze (Danny Glover), who pesters her for work in exchange for a hot meal. Stealing some spoons off her table before high tailing it, a sheriff catches him, drags him before Edna and in an amazing act of compassion, she denies the charges, which sets him free. Moze proves to be a Godsend, as he has a hands-on experience in cotton farming, just the thing to turn around the unused land on her property to keep her creditors at bay.