Review #1001: Days of Heaven (1978)

Title: Days of Heaven
Year: 1978
Director: Terrence Malick
Country: US
Language: English

I must admit that due to Tree of Life (2011) and Terrence Malick's most recent releases I've tried to avoid most of the Director's work in fear that his earlier films would be just as displeasing to my own subjective taste. I'm pleasantly surprised to find out I've been wrong to deny myself of Malick! His debut Badlands  (1973) was a shock to the system, Thin Red Line (1998)is an incredibly moving war story and The New World (2005) is absolutely breathtaking. Did I fall in love with Days of Heaven (1978) as well? YES!

A hot-tempered farm laborer (Richard Gere) convinces the woman (Brooke Adams)  he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.

Days of Heaven is a remarkable picture with panoramic cinematography. It is mesmerizing and hypnotic as not a shot is wasted; all flowing with constant motion in an attempt to show poetry visualized onscreen. I'd imagine this was a more loosely scripted film than his Badlands debut, as much of the picture relies on his freedom to shoot the environment as is, and a tremendous amount of editing. 

Sound is a remarkably important part of the picture, not because of the character's lines (of which there are few) but because of Ennio Morricone's haunting- almost biblical- score iterally inverts the melody of Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals. The wind, birds, machinery, locusts and flaming fire are also noises that evoke great emotion in the film. I love how deliberately paced Days of Heaven is, adding greatly in letting his audience understand how each character thinks. 

Days of Heaven is a masterpiece that is heavy on themes, metaphors and biblical content. It has some of the best camera work I've seen in the history of Cinema. This is mainly because Malick set many of its shots at the "golden hours'' near dawn and dusk, when shadows are muted and the sky is all the same tone. His focus on nature, making the background a part of the story, is absolutely inspiring.