Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12314 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-07-02
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Originally shown on the big screen in glorious 70 mm, Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven is an aesthetically flawless eye-catching period piece that won its cinematographer, Néstor Almendros, an Oscar. Texture and colour are the unbilled characters in this tragic tale, and are just as important as the players. Richard Gere works in a Chicago steel mill at the turn of the 19th century, but must flee the city after accidentally killing a man. Heading for the wheat fields of Texas, he packs up his girlfriend (Brooke Adams) and his younger sister (Linda Manz). Instead of a better life, they head straight into tragedy when a wealthy farmer (Sam Shepard) falls for Adams. Believing him to be dying and expecting to inherit a fortune, she agrees to marry him. Their plans change when Shepard fails to die and Gere takes matters into his own hands. The story, sadly, fades somewhat when compared to the glory of the visuals. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Terrence Malick's follow-up to BADLANDS is an exquisitely photographed story of a group of early-20th-century itinerant workers who find themselves entangled in a deadly love triangle. Bill (Richard Gere) and Abby (Brooke Adams) are lovers who are forced to flee Chicago after Bill accidentally murders his foreman. Together, with Bill's little sister, Linda (Linda Manz), they settle on the land of a wealthy farmer (Sam Shepard) and spend their days working in the wheat fields. Bill discovers that the farmer is terminally ill and convinces Abby to marry him so they can inherit his fortune. As the days progress, it becomes apparent that the farmer isn't getting any sicker, and when he discovers that Abby and Bill had initially set out to con him, their carefree existence comes to a deadly end.
Notorious for its on-set difficulties and extended postproduction, DAYS OF HEAVEN remains a beautifully composed work of art. Malick uses dialogue minimally, sometimes choosing not to fade in the sound of a scene until the actors have finished speaking. To combat this, he applies Linda's innocent voice-over--as he did with Sissy Spacek's in BADLANDS--to add a poetic dimension. Combined with Nestor Almendros's Oscar-winning cinematography and Ennio Morricone's mellifluent score, DAYS OF HEAVEN is a timeless motion picture that confirms Malick's directorial prowess.

Customer Reviews

Tragedy in twilight
Filmed mostly in twilight, in the pink flush and phosphorescent blue of sunrise or sunset, Days of Heaven is one of the most visually beautiful films ever made. Its beauty contrasts with the harshness of life during the Depression years and with the almost documentary-like observations of the travelling community in America.

The story is a tragic Hardyesque one, with a love triangle, reminiscent of the story of Abraham and Sarah, when Abraham lies to Pharaoh about Sarah being his sister rather than his wife. Pharaoh complains to Abraham that he will bring evil to his house...and that's precisely what happens to landowner, Sam Shepard.

Ennio Morricone's score is drawn from Saint Saens' The Aquarium, adding to the beauty of the film but also the sense of inevitability.

Sam Shepard and Brooke Adams are excellent (thank goodness they are not the pretty people of tinseltown!) Richard Gere is at his best ever, not quite in the habit yet of detaching himself from the emotion of the story.

Not many people know this film when I tell them it's one of my all time favourites. I've waited for it since seeing it many years ago - at last I have it for myself!

An overlooked treasure
It is very rare to see a film that makes you wish that you could walk through the screen and just allow everything to wash over you. Days of Heaven does that! It is a total visual delight, and married with Ennio Morricone's glorious score makes it a gem of a film. Watch it and you will find that wind blowing through wheat will take on a different perspective altogether.

Visual Poetry
To hell with equivocation or beating around the bush: Terrence Malick's 1978 "Days of Heaven" is the greatest film ever made. There's nothing else on earth like "Days of Heaven." I love it not only for its much-acclaimed cinematography (Nestor Almendros and Haskell Wrexler), or the evocation of a particular time and place (I'm not even sure we know the when or where of it-- pre WW1 ?). This is a mythic film.


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. What keeps it real is Terence Malick's passion for natural detail, from locusts and wild turkeys to the guile and weakness in human nature. And his characters' simple, American vernacular, especially the narration of the young girl (Linda Manz), adds another rhythm to the golden-hour visual poetry. Every shot is suitable for framing. Watching the movie again recently, i was struck by the little girl's narration, its her story, told by her, and its subject is the way that hope and cheer have been beaten down in her heart.