Heartland Movie Review

Conchata Ferrell is quite wonderful as a widow in her 30s who accepts a position as Rip Torn's housekeeper in Wyoming in the year 1910. Torn is rather a Gloomy Gus, but the two of them get used to each other over the course of the film. The unconventional casting added to the realism of Richard Pearce's film, as did the fact that the screenplay was based on the journals of a real-life pioneer woman, Elinore Randall Stewart. If you love Torn on The Larry Sanders Show, here's a chance to see him in a very different part.

1981 (PG) 95m/C Conchata Ferrell, Rip Torn, Barry Primus, Lilia Skala, Megan Folson; D: Richard Pearce; W: Beth Ferris; C: Fred Murphy. Sundance Film Festival ‘81: Grand Jury Prize. VHS