Days of Heaven - Criterion Collection (1978)

Light Magic

This film is visually breathtaking, has a wonderful flow and the actors are better than I expected.
Also, the extras on the Criterion DVD is good, I especially liked the commentary about how certain scenes were made (a lot of effort was spent on filming in natural light which was risky but produced a very special quality).
Well worth owning and re-watching. June 21, 2008

masterpiece theatre!

DAYS OF HEAVEN is a cinematic masterpiece. Terrence Malick's ability to slowly develeop characters and plot might be anathema to today's MTV-style fast paced camera work and CGI laden movies. Thank you Mr Malick. The cinematography by Néstor Almendros won him a 1978 Oscar. It is breathtaking and an incredilbe part of the story. Richard Gere's finest work, Brooke Adams and Sam Sheppard are incredible. Linda Ganz a revelation. The film takes place in 1916 and slowly develops into a head of steam that literally blows at the end yet leaves you with a feeling of hope. Malick weaves a story with visuals better then any director and to think that the majestic visuals were created without the use of CGI is breathtaking. May 20, 2008

Visually Brilliant

This remarkable film takes full advantage of the medium to tell a story with an absolute minimum of dialogue. The use of camera and music elevates a simple story of a love triangle to the level of epic myth.

The opening sequence of the film uses still shots and music to transport the viewer back to 1916 America. And then the brief sequences of the factory and the train to the farm demonstrate urban and rural life in the new industrial age.

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.

The story itself is a bit thin. Though it may well be that the elemental themes of love and jealousy and the social context that undercuts relationships are best portrayed in a mythic and epic fashion that abstracts from the individuals involved.

The movie is entrancing and one of the great films of the 1970s. March 25, 2008

Poor quality

Item received in the time specified. It was a poor quality DVD. The picture so dark, you couldn't enjoy the wonderful cinenatography which this movie is known for March 23, 2008

Location Better than the Plot

I was prepared to sit back and enjoy a good movie when I watched "Days of Heaven" last night. I admit that the setting was very beautiful, undulating, expansive, and more. The mansion in the middle of thousands of acres of wheat fields was an impressive touch. The problem was with the plot and the acting. I admit that my mild hearing loss may have robbed me of a sentence of two of dialogue here (hear?) and there. However, I had to check the liner notes on the DVD case to reassure myself that the man and the woman were supposed to be traveling together incognito as brother and sister to help in their escape from a murder in Chicago. Their relationship never really developed into anything coherent during the movie even allowing for their intential misrepresentation. Her relationship with the young landowner was a better developed relationship.

The director used a juvenile as a sort of narrator throughout the film. I had a hard time hearing much of what she said and I came away thinking that it was a gimic that didn't work. As a matter of fact, her character was rather unnecessary to the movie, in my opinion. There were times in the movie where the work being done was alternately instructive and ridiculous. I'm reminded of one scene where Richard Gere seems deeply involved with the seriousness of his job as he takes a bundle of cut wheat and moves it from one pile to another one three feet away. There is a scene of disaster that made me wish for the better rendition from "The Good Earth". The ending is akward but, in keeping with the film's strong point, leads us through another cinematic scene of nature's beauty.

February 26, 2008

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