Regular readers know I am a huge fan of auteur director Terrence Malick. I have seen all the later films, but I had not caught up on the early films like his debut film "Bandlands" with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. So I was happy to see a 2007 Criterion Collection re-release of his second feature, "Days of Heaven" with digitally remastered sound and picture, supervised by Malick, editor Billy Weber and camera operator John Bailey.
Malick was certainly ahead of his time with his method of storytelling. Many crew members quit during "Badlands" because of his unorthodox working style, and the same thing happened during the 1976 filming of "Days of Heaven." Lack of a solid script, vague daily call sheets that changed on the whims of the weather and developing ideas from the director, and a photography style utilizing almost exclusively natural light tried the patience of film crews used to working on highly produced, glossy Hollywood films (the lighting crew were particularly dismayed to see Malick remove more and more instruments as the shoot went on). But Malick and his director of photography Néstor Almendros had other ideas, and based the look of "Days of Heaven" on silent films, documentary photographs of city and farm life from the start of the 20th century, and the works of painters Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, and the chiaroscuro work of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.
Here is Hopper's House by the Railroad which influenced the major set of "Days of Heaven"...
...and Wyeth's iconic Christina's World served as inspiration as well.
The story is straight-forward enough: in 1916, Bill (Richard Gere) is a manual laborer in a steel foundry in a large city. After accidentally killing his boss in a shoving fight, he goes on the run with his little sister Linda (Linda Manz) and girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams). They hop a train and end up in the Texas panhandle to become migrant farm workers helping to bring in a crop of wheat for a wealthy single farmer (Sam Shepard). Secretive and mistrusting, Bill tells everyone that he and his girlfriend are brother and sister, but that only creates more problems than it solves as the farmer falls in love with Abby. Bill encourages the relationship as a way to rescue Abby from a life of poverty and despair but also as an angle to play to get money for himself. Abby marries the farmer and the game is set in motion, of course ending in an unpleasant way for all involved.
But as usual with Malick films, the story seems to be beside the point. Yes, his films are set in a time period and people make their way through their lives as best they can, but the overarching idea of a Malick film speaks much more to universal and existential ideas--things that span or transcend time periods and individual lives. We as an audience are remote, dream witnesses to people, their lives, and the world itself around them. They don't usually speak much--something I truly appreciate about Malick's films which let the medium itself carry the narrative. Film is a visual medium and he lets it be so. This provides plenty of space for characters in his films to ponder, to wander, to be...and take us long with them on their journey. While "Days of Heaven" has a bit more narrative drive and dialogue than some of his later films, one can see the seeds that grew into films like "The Tree of Life" and "Knight of Cups." Among recurring Malick motifs, there are lingering shots of nature, both breathtaking long shots of landscapes as well as close ups of animals and plants...there is a voice-over that provides a sense of introspection, acting much like someone whispering thoughts in your ear...and there are sections where we see characters simply being with each other and experiencing the presence of one another. Film is a visual medium and can give us information and ideas visually. I've said it before: there are really only a handful of directors who really let the medium of film be solely what it is, and Malick is one of them. The more a director bypasses words, the more that director bypasses intellect and taps directly into the subconscious world of deeper meaning.
The look and visual style of "Days of Heaven" is, of course, stunning. In fact, in a feature for Interview magazine, actor Owen Wilson said, "I think of Terrence Malick’s movie 'Days of Heaven'—one of Richard Gere’s first movies—you can push pause on almost any image in the movie and it looks like a painting." This applies to nearly any Malick film. Much of the exterior shots in the film were done in The Golden Hour, that short period of time at sunset where the light is golden and magical. And the eclectic soundtrack features "The Aquarium" section from "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saëns, an original score by Ennio Morricone, folk music by fiddler Doug Kershaw, and some guitar pieces by Leo Kottke.
Recommend? If you are a Terrence Malick fan, or if you can appreciate art work that asks you to watch and interpret, of course.
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