9. Places In The Heart (1984)
Sally Fields stars as Edna Spalding, a widow who lives and struggles on a farm during the Great Depression. She takes in a black indigent lodger called Moses or Moze who promises her he will help her grow cotton. An entire film ensues which I am not going to summarise because a) it is irrelevant to the KKK and b) it would take all day so we will skip to the bit that concerns us which is at the end. Edna and family are at a dance when Moze hears a noise outside. He is pounced upon by the Ku Klux Klan. Will, Edna's blind brother in law, gets a pistol and goes outside shooting in the air. The hooded figures are surprised by this and Will can recognise them by their voices. Moze apologises, packs up and leaves the house which is a bit depressing. This is not really the kind of film that I go for but I do agree that it is well crafted and well acted. The Ku Klux Klan's appearance feels like more of a plot contrivance to get Danny Glover's Moze to leave. They are hackneyed bad boys with nothing really profound to say about race relations at this time other than a lot of white people didn't like black people.