Review of Days of Heaven (1978) by James D — 03 Sep 2012

Although I have not seen all of his films, this seemed to me the film by Terrence Malick that had the most clear and easily followable storyline. It is the story of a man and woman, Bill and Abby, trying to survive in an old and now unfamiliar world. And everything is fine until another man, simply named "The Farmer," falls in love with Abby, and jealousy ensues amongst the two men. Although the story is simple, the director applies his own unique style and vision to the story.

It takes place during the industrial revolution, but the setting of the majority of the film takes place on a wide open farmland, another way in which Malick takes the expected and turns it on its head. Days of Heaven, like all Terrence Malick films I've come to learn, feels like a film where not a single frame is wasted on useless information. Every single image that is placed in the film seems to have a purpose. Something that is refreshing to me in a world where most of the movies I see today seem extremely drawn out. Even something as simplistic as the name of the character of "The Farmer," where we are not told his actual name because it is not important. He is the person that represents the jealousy that comes between Abby and Bill, and he is in a way the person who represents the farm itself. In a beautiful scene near the end of the film when the farm is attacked by locusts, The Farmer sets his farm on fire. In a way, symbolizing the way in which his mind and world is now falling apart, due to the fact that he discovers Abby's feelings for Bill.

Another thing I love about Terrence Malick films is the vagueness that it sometimes contains. And by vagueness, I do not mean that in a negative way. For example, there is an image that stuck with me throughout viewing the film. A simple scene in which Abby or Bill (I can't remember now) drops a glass in the river, but they ignore it and decide not to pick it up. In a framed close up of the glass in the water, I felt extremely uneasy. I kept expecting someone in the film to step on that glass and cut their foot, something that made me uncomfortable to think about. However we never come back to the glass ever again. It is never mentioned or seen for the rest of the film. What conclusions can we come to from the inclusion of this image? Is the image of the glass in the water supposed to represents something specific? Does it represent the chaos that will happen soon to something that seems so perfect? Does the water represents constant uncertainty circling around our lives? Or might it simply be placed there for the same result of emotion that it caused me to feel, uneasiness? Not to foreshadow anything specific in a cliche way that some movies do, but to subconsciously prepare us for what is to come? It's difficult to say what the intention was, but the results are effective in creating an image that sticks in your head and causes the viewer to ponder the film.

As a huge fan of film and an aspiring screenwriter, I found the movie extremely innovative. It represents for me, a movie showing us the many ways in which one can tell a narrative story. I think Terrence Malick pretty much is the master of "showing" and not "telling" in the world of modern filmmaker. But I think many others might find the film boring in the fact that not a whole lot of information is told to us. The audience sees only and is allowed to conclude from their own observations. In fact, although many would probably disagree with me, I think that Terrence Malick films are the most engaging. No other filmmaker lets the audience participate like he does. Most films these days, seem to want to stuff information down our throats with fast cutting and punchy dialogue. Which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. But Malick has a patience, rarely experienced in today's cinema. I don't know how many more times I would watch Days of Heaven. As a modern audience go-er, I am probably more likely to watch the drawn out, fast cut action films and thrillers of our generation that I love. But every once and a while, I may want to participate in a truly unique and engaging movie experience. And if anyone else wants to as well, I would definitely suggest this film or any film by Terrence Malick.