Review of Days of Heaven (1978) by Stefan N — 05 Jul 2013

The first thing that stuns you while experiencing, not viewing, "Days of Heaven" is Terrence Malick's ability to create mood and atmosphere all while manipulating and maintaining it. Its probably the most effective love triangle story.

A poor, young man convinces his girlfriend, who is known to everyone except for his younger sister as his older sister, to marry the owner of the land on which he works on. He does this since he overhears that the owner will soon die.

However, when his girlfriend is gradually falling in love with her husband, and the owner does not die, her young lover grows more and more frustrated. The narration is impeccably told by a raspy voice highlighted by a Chicago accent by Linda Manz, the younger sister.

Everything is told as if it was a projection of what she saw except its not it POV. The passion of the three young lovers is inexistent, the film feels very innocent with hidden layers of evil, and the conflicts are ever so powerful due to the teen's perspective.

The acting is good especially from new-comer Richard Gere. The score by Ennio Morricone will go down as history's greatest film score and the cinematography always gets enough praise from other critics, but can never get too much.

Everything is technically perfect in this film like many other classics. We get transported to the valleys of wheat stretch to the horizon .Even though there is certainly a sub-theme regarding poverty and industrialization, the movie mainly question's man's innocence.

All of his film's are so spiritual that they please to the good of your soul. Its not really an epic, but sometimes it will feel that way. "Days of Heaven" is such a powerful film without being a tearjerker carried by beautiful images, a pleasing score, and maybe the best occurrence of narration in cinematic history highlighted by Malick's sensitive and unique direction.