A period drama from 1978 has been called a “masterpiece” and “one of the best films ever made”. Days of Heaven is an American romance written and directed by Terrence Malick, and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz.
Set in 1916, the story follows Bill and Abby, lovers who travel to the Texas Panhandle to work harvesting crops for a wealthy grain farmer. Bill persuades Abby to claim the fortune of the dying farmer by tricking him into a sham marriage. The film received positive reviews on its original theatrical release. Its natural-light photography was widely praised. It also won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, along with three nominations for the score, costume design and sound. Malick also won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film competed for the prestigious Palme d’Or.
Days of Heaven has since become one of the most acclaimed films of the decade, particularly for its cinematography. It has a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and appeared at number 49 in a 2015 BBC poll of the greatest American films.
In 2007, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being « culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. Variety called the film « one of the great cinematic achievements of the 1970s.”
Dave Kehr, film critic for The Chicago Reader, wrote: « Terrence Malick’s remarkably rich second feature is a story of human lives touched and passed over by the divine, told in a rush of stunning and precise imagery.
“Nestor Almendros’s cinematography is as sharp and vivid as Malick’s narration is elliptical and enigmatic. The result is a film that hovers just beyond our grasp—mysterious, beautiful, and, very possibly, a masterpiece ».
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also wrote that the film « truly tests a film critic’s power of description. Some critics have complained that the Days of Heaven story is too slight. I suppose it is, but, frankly, you don’t think about it while the movie is playing”.
Time magazine’s Frank Rich wrote, « Days of Heaven is lush with brilliant images ». The periodical went on to name it one of the best films of 1978. Nick Schager of Slant Magazine has called it « the greatest film ever made.”
It is available to buy and rent on YouTube, Google, Sky Store, Amazon, and Apple TV.
