Heartland

An admirably restrained, low-key, almost “ethnographic” northern agricultural drama, focused on the ordinary and extraordinary realities of life and death known and experienced by farmers, and the uncertain rewards of their constant toil. It can often seem rather dull, but it also has a strange, hypnotic (some would say soporific) power that builds to what is really a very fine ending, at once unexpected, understated (but oddly one could also say “dramatic”) and affecting. On the other hand, Danny Peary had (especially for him) a very negative opinion, and was clearly irritated. See Peary (1987), p. 191:

“Picture is self-consciously arty (don’t you hate films that show animals being slaughtered in the name of realism?) and simple to a fault – we moviegoers have been duped into believing that when actors say little and display little emotion during those crisis situations when their characters are surely undergoing emotional turmoil, they’re really doing a great acting job. The reserved manner of these characters is annoying – the picture cries out for emotion and words. What’s most disappointing is that there are no surprises; it’s like a typical PBS program that you watch for about twenty minutes before flipping the channel. Somehow it won a lot of awards.”