Days of Heaven

Days of Heaven (1978)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Terrence Malick

Starring: Richard Gere, Brook Adams, Sam Shephard, Linda Manz, Robert J. Wilkie

From: Paramount

I don't love this movie like many do; however, I am glad I saw it. Read why below:

I saw this movie late last night on Turner Classic Movies; I actually had never seen this before and I figured it would be a wise idea to see an HD version of it. I was definitely correct there. As everyone else has remarked, the cinematography is beautiful. Filming a lot of it after the sun set but before it became dark gave it a unique look; both Nestor Almendros and Haskell Wexler did an excellent job with that. I have no idea who filmed what but I certainly feel bad for Almendros... during filming he suffered the brutally ironic curse of starting to lose his sight; having to use Polaroid photos and a magnifying glass to try and compose shots... wow.

As for the plot, I can see how there was a lot of improvisation going on and how things were so disjointed from a difficult shoot that Malick had to use the narration from the Linda character to try and tie things together. Linda Manz (the Anna Kendrick of her generation), I otherwise have no complaints about her performance, except that she uses a rather strange accent; if it's supposed to be “a Chicago accent”, I can say as someone who grew up in the northern part of Illinois, I never heard anyone sound like her. As she's also the narrator... it wasn't a deal-breaker to me. I just thought it was odd, that's all. Anyhow, the story of how a guy, his young sister, and his girlfriend end up in Texas in the years before World War I and how a scheme to marry a sick rich man so his money can be inherited goes awry... while things are kept at arm's length, I was never bored and was always engaged.

The film doesn't exactly have a smooth narrative and the narration doesn't always fix that, yet the movie manages to be compelling nonetheless. I don't love the movie like many do (I'll presume that those people love it because of its flaws and how the story is told in a different way) but I can still give it high marks.The difficulty of this production is likely why Malick didn't make anything else until 1998; I can't explain why he only now became prolific late in life, but Lord knows he's not the only talented director to be at least a little weird.


Anyhow, this movie should be watched by everyone due to its visuals (and also quite good musical score from Morricone), and you can make up your own mind concerning the story's effectiveness. I can say that the use of locusts here was better and more terrifying than in Exorcist II: The Heretic...