A Terrence Malick romantic drama, Days of Heaven is a film so visually lush that it has become legendary mainly for Nestor Almendros’s and Haskell Wesler’s Oscar-winning cinematography. It is so strikingly beautiful that nearly every single frame is a piece of art that could be displayed in a museum exhibit. However, it is the fact that the visuals and sounds actually tell the story instead of the traditional verbal means of story telling and acting that make this film truly unique and unforgettable.

Set in the 1910′s, the film centers on Bill (Richard Gere), an indigent and short-tempered laborer who is forced to flee Chicago after he accidentally kills a foreman during an argument at a steel mill. He hops on a train, along with his girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams) and his young sister Linda (Linda Manz) and the three head toward the Texas Panhandle. Not long after arriving, they find employment harvesting wheat on a seemingly boundless Texas farm while pretending that they are brother and sisters. The wealthy owner of the farm (Sam Shephard) soon notices Abby and begins to court her. Bill overhears the young farmer talking to a doctor in which it is revealed that he is dying and might only have a year to live. Sensing that they could benefit from the situation and escape their lives of hard labor, he urges urges Abby to accept the courtship and marry the farmer, hoping that the three of them will get his possession after his imminent death. Unfortunately for Bill, “instead of getting sicker, he just stayed the same’, setting the table for drama and tragedy.

The biblical reference of Days of Heaven’s title reflects the 3-part structure of the film. The opening sequence is set in a hot and humid steel mill with showers of welding sparks and fiery ovens. Very much like Kit in Badlands, Bill becomes a man on the edge of society after he accidentally murders his superior, committing his first sin. The film’s climax in the last third of the movie is an invasion of locusts and a brush fire that annihilates the entire crop of wheat, preceding a second murder. Those events coming immediately after the farmer’s discovery of Bill and Abby’s real relationship. The opening and closing thirds use hell as a visual manifestation of Bill’s sins. Sandwiched between these two sections is the “Heaven” during which all our characters live in relative joy and happiness.

As it has been one of the main trademark of Malick’s movies, the story is intermittently voiced-over by Linda cluing us from the onset that everything is seen from her innocent eyes. Although she is just a teenager, you can tell quickly that she has lived a harsh life and not much can really trouble her even at her young age. Her peculiar commentary do not always provide much insight into the other characters. However, her narration has a distant and disconnected feel to it that distance us from the main characters which are intentionally left somewhat apathetic very much in the veins of Holly and Kit in Badlands. This is not to say that the actors did a poor job because they were quite good with a young Richard Gere giving one of his very best performance here.

Emotions and feelings are often left for the audience to interpret through visual cues and metaphoric representations instead of the much more prevalent and obvious dialogues we would get in other movies. We are left waiting for the confrontation between Bill and the farmer but when they do, they never speak the obvious lines you would expect from them. What are they thinking in those charged moments? Did Abby fall in love with the farmer? Is the farmer really sick? Very little is said and nearly everything is left to the imagination. Because of the lack of in-your-face drama, Days of Heaven remains somewhat emotionally muted and although it was clearly intentional, I thought it took too much away from the movie. We are always kept at a certain distance from the characters and we never become fully engaged in their struggles.

The cinematography by Almendro and Wesler is one of the most strikingly beautiful you will ever see in a film. Watching the wheat field undulate in the wind and witnessing the immensity of the landscape contrasted with the presence of our four main characters are sights and feelings to behold. The very vast majority of the movie takes place outdoors in those giant wheat fields surrounding the farmer’s mansion and numerous cinematography techniques from seamless tracking shots to time-lapse photography were used to breathtaking effects. Finally, most of the scenes in the movie were shot  in the late afternoon or early morning without any additional artificial light giving the movie a very natural and authentic feel. The haunting soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is evocative and complements the visuals to perfection.

Trouble is brewing

One of the most beautiful movie you will ever see, Days of Heaven is simply unforgettable if only for its incredibly evocative visuals. However, the emotional distance from the characters takes a toll on how engaged we are in their fates.

B+

(8.0/10)

Lesson of the Day: “Nobody’s perfect. You just get half devil and half angel in you.”

Notes: 94 min, a Paramount Pictures release.