Review: Days of Heaven (1978)

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Days of Heaven

Rating

Director

Terrence Malick

Screenplay

Terrence Malick

Length

1h 34m

Starring

Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz, Robert Wilke, Jackie Shultis, Stuart Margolin, Tim Scott

MPAA Rating

Basic Plot

Migrant workers search out a good life, but it is never meant to be.

Review

Terrence Malick brings to life the tale of two migrant workers who are forced to move from place to place because of bad circumstances.

Bill (Richard Gere), his love Abby (Brooke Adams) and his kid sister Linda (Linda Manz) are in search of a new place to work. Bill had fought and killed a co-worker at a steel mill and must flee for his own life. They end up on a farm where many migrant workers are harvesting crops for a wealthy farmer (Sam Shepard).

Bill and Abby maintain a physical relationship in private and a brother-sister relationship in public. The farmer falls in love with Abby and asks her and her siblings to stay on the farm after the harvest. Under the impression that Bill and Abby are family, he asks Abby to marry him. Bill encourages her to agree and from there we experience a bizarre love triangle that can only end in tragedy.

This was Malick’s last film before his 20-year, self-imposed hiatus from film. In his new film, “The Thin Red Line,” we see how much he adores the beauty of nature itself. He uses it in “Line” as a heavy metaphor, yet it isn’t clear what his intention is with “Days of Heaven.”

“Days” is well written, directed and acted. While its true purpose isn’t completely evident, the film manages to allow us into these people’s lives and experience what they do. We see them as human beings trapped by emotion. So afraid of losing everything, they force themselves to put on a charade.

“Days of Heaven” is a good movie with a lot of artistic elements, but at times feels like it is a little lost in its intended journey.