i saw heartland when it be first release in 1980 and i have just see it again . it improve with age . heartland be not just for lover of indie film . at a time when most american film be little more than cynical attempt to make money with cgi and pyrotechnic and and or or vulgarity and heartland hold up a a slice of american history . it be also a reminder of how spoiled most of u modern and urbanized american be . nothing in this film be overstate or stagey . no one declaim any hollywood movie speech . the actor really inhabit their role . this really feel like a small film but really it be big than most multizillion dollar hollywood production . the film be base on the life of real people . in 1910 and elinore randall ( conchata ferrell and who have never do anything well than this ) and a widow with a 7 year old daughter jerrine ( megan folsom ) and be live in denver but want more opportunity . she advertise for a position a housekeeper . the ad be answer by clyde stewart ( rip torn and one of our most under appreciated actor ) and a scots born rancher and himself a widower and with a homestead outside of burnt fork and wyoming . elinore accept the position ( seven dollar a week . ) and move up to wyoming with her daughter . she and her daughter move into stewart tiny house on the property . it be roll and treeless rangeland and a place of endless vista where the silence be break only by the sound make by these people and their animal . it guarantee to make a person feel small . the three character go for long period without see another human soul . what be bad and stewart turn out to be taciturn to the point of be almost silent . i can not talk to the man and elinore complains to grandma landauer . you would better learn before winter and reply grandma . grandma ( lilia skala ) be one of the only two other character who be see more than fleetingly . she come out to wyoming from germany with her husband many year before and run her ranch alone now that she be also widow . grandma be their near neighbor ( and the local midwife ) and still she live ten mile away . the other support character be jack the hired hand ( barry primus ) . elinore routine ( and her employer ) be one of endless and backbreaking labor and where there be no modern convenience and where everything must be make and fix or do by hand . this be the real meat of the film represent watch the ordinary life of these rancher a they struggle against nature to wrest a living from the land . but despite the constant toil and fatigue and elinore be always look for other opportunity . she learn that the tract adjacent to stewart be unclaimed . impulsively and she file a claim on the property ( twelve dollar and or almost two week pay . ) and mean that if she live on it ( and she must actually live there ) and work it for ten year and she will get the deed to it . naturally and stewart learn what she have do . with merciless logic and he point out that with no money and no livestock and no credit and and no asset and she have no chance of succeed . he then offer a solution represent he propose marriage . the stunned elinore realize that this be the only real alternative and and accepts . we think that stewart proposal be purely machiavellian he want the land and the free labor but we see that and in fact and he be genuinely fond of elinore and and they grow together a a couple . she become pregnant while she go into labor in the middle of a midwinter blizzard while clyde travel for hour on horseback through the storm the ten mile to grandma and the ten mile back and only to announce that grandma wasn not there . this be more like real life than be pleasant and folk . elinore have the baby all by herself and with no help whatsoever . their son be still an infant when he get sick and dy . they lose half their livestock to the vicious winter . they struggle on . the last sequence in the film be suppose to be optimistic represent the birth of a calf . clyde call elinore urgently to help him deliver the calf . instead of be head first and the calf be in a footling breech presentation . he and elinore must physically pull the calf out of the birth canal . there be no cgi and animatronics and trickery and fakery or special effect represent what you see be what happen and folk represent a calf be bear on a bed of straw in a wooden barn by lamplight . with that and the film do not so much end a simply stop and leave the viewer unsatisfied and but after a while you appreciate the film a a whole and not just for it end . this little gem reward patience and thoughtfulness . it will be watchable long after most of the film of the last generation have long be forget .