Heartland is a 1979

1979 in film

The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....

 American film

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

, directed by Richard Pearce, starring Rip Torn

Rip Torn

Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn, Jr. , is an American actor of stage, screen and television.Torn received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1983 film Cross Creek. His work includes the role of Artie, the producer, on The Larry Sanders Show, for which he was nominated...

 and Conchata Ferrell

Conchata Ferrell

Conchata Galen Ferrell is an American actress. She is best known for playing Berta the housekeeper in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, for which she received two Emmy Award nominations in 2005 and 2007.-Personal life:...

. The film is a stark depiction of early homestead

Homesteading

Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency.-Current practice:The term may apply to anyone who follows the back-to-the-land movement by adopting a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading...

 life in the American West, and is based on a 1914 published reminiscence by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, titled Letters of a Woman Homesteader.

Though the story is set in southwestern Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

, where Stewart homesteaded, the movie was actually filmed in central Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

.

Prominently featured as a "Buried Treasure" (a film which had received little attention during its initial run) on a 1980 episode of Roger Ebert & Gene Siskel's long-running TV show.

Cast

• Rip Torn
  Rip Torn
  Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn, Jr. , is an American actor of stage, screen and television.Torn received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1983 film Cross Creek. His work includes the role of Artie, the producer, on The Larry Sanders Show, for which he was nominated...
  
   - Clyde Stewart
• Conchata Ferrell
  Conchata Ferrell
  Conchata Galen Ferrell is an American actress. She is best known for playing Berta the housekeeper in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, for which she received two Emmy Award nominations in 2005 and 2007.-Personal life:...
  
   - Elinore Randall Stewart
• Barry Primus
  Barry Primus
  Barry Primus is an American television and film actor.Primus is primarily an actor, but has also doubled and tripled as writer and director. He worked on stage for the first decade of his career. He gained some experience on TV in shows like The Defenders, East Side/West Side and The Virginian...
  
   - Jack
• Megan Folsom - Jerrine
• Lilia Skala
  Lilia Skala
  -Early life:Skala was born Lilia Sofer in Vienna, Austria. Her mother, Katharina Skala, was Catholic, and her father, Julius Sofer, was Jewish and worked as a manufacturers representative for the Waldes Koh-i-noor Company. In the late 1930s, she was forced to flee her Nazi-occupied homeland with...
  
   - Mrs. Landauer
• Amy Wright
  Amy Wright
  Amy Wright is an American actress. She has appeared in such films as The Deer Hunter, Breaking Away, The Amityville Horror, Heartland, Wise Blood, Stardust Memories, The Accidental Tourist, Hard Promises, Crossing Delancey and Miss Firecracker.Wright is married to actor Rip Torn and the couple...
  
   - Clara Jane
• Jerry Hardin
  Jerry Hardin
  Jerry Hardin is an American actor who has made many television and film appearances. He played illegitimate heir, Wild Bill Westchester, in the failed 1982 television series Filthy Rich. One of his most recognizable roles was that of the character Deep Throat in the series The X-Files...
  
   - Cattlebuyer
• Mary Boylan - Ma Gillis
• Jeff Boschee
  Jeff Boschee
  Jeffrey Allen Boschee is an American basketball player and coach. He currently serves as an assistant coach of the men's team at Missouri Southern State University. Boschee played guard at the University of Kansas from 1998 to 2002. He was named Mr...
  
   - Land Office Agent #1
• Robert Overholzer - Land Office Agent #2
• Bob Sirucek - Dan Byrd
• Marvin Berg - Justice of the Peace
• Gary Voldseth - Cowboy
• Mike Robertson - Cowboy
• Doug Johnson - Cowboy

Awards

The film shared the Golden Bear

Golden Bear

According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....

 award at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival

30th Berlin International Film Festival

The 30th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 18 to February 29, 1980.-Jury:* Ingrid Thulin * Betsy Blair* Mathieu Carrière* Alberto Isaac* Peter Kern* Károly Makk* Alexander Mitta* Alexandre Trauner...

in 1980.