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Days Of Heaven [1979]


RRP: £9.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Originally shown on the big screen in glorious 70 mm, Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven is an aesthetically flawless eye-catching period piece that won its cinematographer, Néstor Almendros, an Oscar. Texture and colour are the unbilled characters in this tragic tale, and are just as important as the players. Richard Gere works in a Chicago steel mill at the turn of the 19th century, but must flee the city after accidentally killing a man. Heading for the wheat fields of Texas, he packs up his girlfriend (Brooke Adams) and his younger sister (Linda Manz). Instead of a better life, they head straight into tragedy when a wealthy farmer (Sam Shepard) falls for Adams. Believing him to be dying and expecting to inherit a fortune, she agrees to marry him. Their plans change when Shepard fails to die and Gere takes matters into his own hands. The story, sadly, fades somewhat when compared to the glory of the visuals. --Rochelle O'Gorman


Still my favourite film!
Review date: 2008-05-17 Rating: 10 out of 10

I was fortunate enough to see Days of Heaven on the big screen in the early 80s. Its stunning combination of landscape, image, sound and music was sheer sensory overload. Many people find the film's simple story lacking, but the familiar love triangle neatly encapsulates classical themes of love, desire, jealousy, murder and revenge. Traditionally these are foundations for epic tragedy, but Malick portrays the human story as insignificant within the eternal spiral of the universe. His obsession is to capture the momentous roll of day into night, the flourish and decay of the seasons and the gentle whisper of the breeze. Even the flutter of a single blade of grass has its own grandeur. The muted characters struggle for transitory life against these timeless forces. When jealousy escalates to murder, Nature takes symbolic, biblical revenge.

Days of Heaven is dominated by its legendary cinematography and score - generally acknowledged to be some of the most beautiful imagery and music ever set to film. You can lie back and luxuriate in these elements time after time and really savour the atmosphere. I know there are greater masterpieces on my shelf, and it doesn't hold up so well on the smaller screen, but this is my favourite movie and I return to it time after time.



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Reviews


Terrence Malick is a genius
Review date: 2008-04-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is my least favourite of Terrence Malick's films. Yet it is still achingly beautiful and perfect in every detail - story, imagery, acting and sound. And detail is the key. The visionary artist William Blake wrote of 'minute particulars' and this is where Malick's genius really shines. Each look, each touch, each wisp of wind and each buzz of an insect is so right, so true.

It is this simple. You should buy every Terence Malick film. You should sit down in front of each and revel in it's beauty and magnificence; and you will walk away from each one a better and more enlightened human being.

Gorgeous!
Review date: 2007-01-22 Rating: 10 out of 10

Ostensibly a story involving a love triangle between a wealthy farmer and two impoverished migrant workers set in rural Texas in the early part of the Twentieth century.
As you would expect from Terence Mallick the film is so much more; the story is secondary to the wonder and beauty the director sees in the natural world. The characters and their story are only a part of a world driven by and kept moving by eternal conflict. Mallick's camera is equally interested in the wind blowing through wheat fields or locusts swarming at dusk.
I don't think it reaches the meditative high's of his next film- The Thin Red Line, but, the film is less ponderous and is a wonderful visual experience.


Visual Poetry
Review date: 2006-09-11 Rating: 10 out of 10

To hell with equivocation or beating around the bush: Terrence Malick's 1978 "Days of Heaven" is the greatest film ever made. There's nothing else on earth like "Days of Heaven." I love it not only for its much-acclaimed cinematography (Nestor Almendros and Haskell Wrexler), or the evocation of a particular time and place (I'm not even sure we know the when or where of it-- pre WW1 ?). This is a mythic film.


Sam Shepard and Richard Gere are quite convincing in portraying, with almost no dialogue, the conflicting emotions and suffering of the rivals for Brooke Adams' affections. Adams also is well cast as the beautiful girl from humble circumstances who is at once corrupted and the source of all truth. And the narration by the child is a wonderful touch that adds an ironic perspective to the tale. Leo Kottke's guitar on the soundtrack is yet another perfect touch. What keeps it real is Terence Malick's passion for natural detail, from locusts and wild turkeys to the guile and weakness in human nature. And his characters' simple, American vernacular, especially the narration of the young girl (Linda Manz), adds another rhythm to the golden-hour visual poetry. Every shot is suitable for framing. Watching the movie again recently, i was struck by the little girl's narration, its her story, told by her, and its subject is the way that hope and cheer have been beaten down in her heart.


An overlooked treasure
Review date: 2003-06-17 Rating: 10 out of 10

It is very rare to see a film that makes you wish that you could walk through the screen and just allow everything to wash over you. Days of Heaven does that! It is a total visual delight, and married with Ennio Morricone's glorious score makes it a gem of a film. Watch it and you will find that wind blowing through wheat will take on a different perspective altogether.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Sam Shepard
Brooke Adams
Robert J. Wilke
Linda Manz
Richard Gere

Creators:
Richard Gere (Primary Contributor)
Brooke Adams (Primary Contributor)
Néstor Almendros (Cinematographer)
Terrence Malick (Writer)
Billy Weber (Editor)
Bert Schneider (Producer)
Harold Schneider (Producer)
Jacob Brackman (Producer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
EAN: 5014437811530
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2001-07-02
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 89 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1978-09-13
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Italian (Original Language)

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