DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978)

Director: Terrence Malick
Writer: Terrence Malick
Stars: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard
Runtime: 94 minutes

Plot: A hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.

Review: The film takes place outside Chicago during the years before World War I. Richard Gere and Brooke Adams are Bill and Abby, a Chicago couple on the run from the law who pose as brother and sister to find itinerant farm-work in the Texas prairie. Sam Shepard's ailing young farmer, with evidently just a year to live, falls in love with Abby; Bill then persuades her to take up with him, give him some happiness in what little time remains, and then they can be rich together with his money after he's dead. Of course, the plan goes wrong. 

The film, with its transcendentally beautiful visuals and mysterious and detached narration from Bill's actual younger sister Linda (Linda Manz), who tags along with them, is a rich and rewarding experience. The credit for cinematography goes to the Cuban Nestor Almendros, who won an Oscar for the film; "Days of Heaven'' established him in America, where he went on to great success.
Since it was first released, "Days of Heaven'' has gathered legends to itself. Malick, who also made "Badlands" with newcomers Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen in 1973, made this film five years later and then went on a hiatus. Because the film made such an impression, the fact of his disappearance took on mythic proportions.

"Days of Heaven'' is above all one of the most beautiful films ever made. Malick's purpose is not to tell a story of melodrama, but one of loss. His tone is elegiac. He evokes the loneliness and beauty of the limitless Texas prairie.