Days of Heaven

Days of Heaven
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Terrence Malick
Produced by	Bert Schneider Harold Schneider
Written by	Terrence Malick
Starring	Richard Gere Brooke Adams Sam Shepard Linda Manz
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Cinematography	Néstor Almendros Haskell Wexler
Editing by	Billy Weber
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	September 13, 1978
Running time	95 min
Country	United States
Language	English

Days of Heaven is a 1978 film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz. Set in the early twentieth century, it tells a story about transient laborers who travel to the Texas Panhandle to harvest crops on a farm, and who conspire to exploit a dying farmer.

1 Synopsis
2 Production
3 Reception
4 Criterion release
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Synopsis

According to the theatrical trailer, the story is set in 1916 (the film shows a 1916 newspaper, and a scene late in the film shows American soldiers headed off for World War I). Bill (Gere), a Chicago manual laborer, knocks down a boss in the steel mill where he works, possibly killing him, and then flees to the Texas Panhandle with his girlfriend Abby (Adams) and younger sister Linda (Manz). Bill and Abby pretend to be siblings to prevent gossip.

The three hire on as seasonal workers with a rich, shy farmer (Shepard) who, although still young, Bill learns is dying of an unspecified disease. When the farmer falls in love with Abby, Bill encourages her to marry him so that they can inherit his money when he dies. The marriage takes place and Bill stays at the farm as Abby's "brother," though the farmer's foreman Robert Wilke suspects their scheme. The farmer's health unexpectedly remains stable, foiling Bill's scheme.

Eventually, Bill's true relationship with Abby is discovered by the farmer, though ironically she has begun to fall in love with her new husband. The farmer goes after Bill with a gun, but Bill kills him with a screwdriver. Although we see that the killing was in self defense, it's clear that (due to the class difference between them and the fact that Bill was perpetrating a scam on the farmer) Bill would be treated as a murderer if caught. Bill and the women escape, but the vengeful foreman puts the police on their trail, and the police ultimately kill Bill. Abby leaves Linda at a boarding school and goes off on her own.

Production

When Paramount Pictures agreed to finance the production for Days of Heaven, the studio was headed in a new direction. They were hiring new production heads who had worked in network television, and, according to former production chief Richard Sylbert, "[manufacturing] product aimed at your knees."^[1]

Despite the change in direction, legendary producer Bert Schneider was able to secure a deal with Paramount by guaranteeing the budget and taking personal responsibility for all overages. "Those were the kind of deals I liked to make," Bert said, "because then I could have final cut and not talk to nobody about why we're gonna use this person instead of that person."^[1]

According to casting director Dianne Crittenden, Malick originally wanted John Travolta to play Bill because he felt Travolta had a blue collar attitude appropriate for the role. Travolta reportedly turned down the role because scheduling would've been too difficult given his commitment to the television show, Welcome Back, Kotter. Malick eventually cast Richard Gere, who was a great admirer of Badlands and eager to work with Malick.

Production began in the fall of 1976. Though the film was set in Texas, the exteriors were shot in Whiskey Gap, Alberta, Canada. Jack Fisk constructed the outdoor sets from plywood including the farmer's house.^[2]

Director of photography Nestor Almendros was actually losing his eyesight by the time shooting began, and to evaluate his setups, "he had one of his assistants take Polaroids of the scene, then examined them through very strong glasses."^[1]

According to Almendros, Malick wanted "a very visual movie. The story would be told through visuals. Very few people really want to give that priority to image. Usually the director gives priority to the actors and the story, but here the story was told through images."^[3]

Much of the film would be shot during "magic hour," which Almendros called "a euphemism, because it's not an hour but around 25 minutes at the most. It is the moment when the sun sets, and after the sun sets and before it is night. The sky has light, but there is no actual sun. The light is very soft, and there is something magic about it. It limited us to around twenty minutes a day, but it did pay on the screen. It gave some kind of magic look, a beauty and romanticism."^[3]

This "magic look" would extend to interior scenes, which often utilized natural light. "In this period there was no electricity," said Almendros. "It was before electricity was invented and consequently there was less light. Period movies should have less light. In a period movie the light should come from the windows because that is how people lived."^[3]

While the photography yielded exquisite results, the rest of the production was difficult from the start. The actors and crew reportedly viewed Malick as cold and distant. After two weeks of shooting, Malick was so disappointed with the dailies, he "decided to toss the script, go Leo Tolstoy instead of Fyodor Dostoevsky, wide instead of deep [and] shoot miles of film with the hope of solving the problems in the editing room."^[1]

The new approach aggravated Gere, who later claimed that Malick was indecisive and didn't know how to direct the actors. He became so frustrated with Malick, he considered leaving the picture.

Malick's slow, deliberate direction also angered Schneider. Production was lagging behind, with costs exceeding the budget by about $800,000, and Schneider had already mortgaged his home in order to cover the overages.^[1]

The production ran so late that both Almendros and camera operator John Bailey had to leave for prior commitments. Almendros approached his friend and renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler to complete the film.

Wexler was careful to match Almendros' work, but he did make some exceptions. "I did some hand held shots on a Panaflex," he said, "[for] the opening of the film in the steel mill. I used some diffusion. Nestor didn't use any diffusion. I felt very guilty using the diffusion and having (sic) the feeling of violating a fellow cameraman."^[3]

Though half the finished picture would consist of footage shot by Wexler, he would only receive credit for "additional photography," much to his chagrin. The credit would deny him any chance of an Academy Award for his work on Days of Heaven, and he once sent critic Roger Ebert a letter "in which he described sitting in a theater with a stopwatch to prove that more than half of the footage" was his.^[4]

After the production finished principal photography, the editing process took over two years to complete. Malick had a difficult time shaping the film and getting the pieces to go together. Schneider reportedly showed some footage to director Richard Brooks, who was considering Gere for a role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar. According to Schneider, the editing for Days of Heaven took so long that "Brooks cast Gere, shot, edited and released [Looking for Mr. Goodbar] while Malick was still editing."

A breakthrough came when Malick experimented with voice-overs from Linda Manz's character, similar to what he had done with Sissy Spacek in Badlands.^[1] According to editor Billy Weber, Malick jettisoned much of the film's dialogue, replacing it with Manz's voice-over, which served as an oblique commentary on the story.

After a year, Malick had to call the actors to Los Angeles to shoot inserts of shots that were necessary but had not been filmed in Alberta. The finished film thus includes close-ups of Shephard that were actually shot under a freeway overpass, while the underwater shot of Gere falling face down into the river was actually shot in a large aquarium in Sissy Spacek's living room.^[2]

Meanwhile, Schneider was still upset with Malick. He had confronted Malick numerous times regarding missed deadlines and broken promises, and due to further cost overruns, he had to ask Paramount for more money, a request he was not comfortable making. However, when they screened a demo for Paramount and made their pitch, the studio was impressed and reportedly "gave Malick a very sweet deal at the studio, carte blanche, essentially."^[1]

However, Malick would not be able to capitalize on the deal. He was so exhausted from working on the film that he subsequently moved to Paris with his girlfriend. He tried developing another project for Paramount, but after a substantial amount of work, he abandoned it. He did not make another film for twenty years.^[5]

Reception

Malick won the Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director award) at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. The film also won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Per Academy custom the award was given in the name of principal photographer Nestor Almendros. This was somewhat controversial as renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler also received credit on the film. Wexler has complained about not receiving an Oscar statue for his contributions to the work. Malick was also named the best director by the National Society of Film Critics.

The film was also nominated for Academy Awards for Costume Design, Original Score, and Sound.

Dave Kehr of 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."^[6]

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."^[7]

In 2007, Days of Heaven was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Criterion release

In October 2007, the Criterion Collection released the film in a remastered edition.^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Biskind, Peter (1998). "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls", Simon and Schuster, pp. 297-299.
^ ^a ^b "After The Rehearsal: Flirting with Disaster: Discussing Days of Heaven and Dylan classics with Sam Shepard", by Michael Almereyda, The Village Voice, April 20, 2004, retrieved April 17, 2006
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Glassman, Arnold; McCarthy, Todd; Samuels, Stuart: "Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography." Kino International, 1992.
^ Ebert, Roger (December 7, 1997). "Days of Heaven: Great Movies", Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved on 09-19-2007.
^ Biskind, Peter (December 1998). "The Runaway Genius", Vanity Fair. Retrieved on 17 September 2008.
^ Kehr, Dave (1978). "Review of Days of Heaven", The Chicago Reader.
^ Siskel, Gene (October 9, 1978). Review of Days of Heaven, Chicago Tribune.
^ The Criterion Collection: Days of Heaven by Terrence Malick

External links

Days of Heaven at the Internet Movie Database
Days of Heaven at Allmovie

v • d • e Films directed by Terrence Malick

Badlands (1973) • Days of Heaven (1978) • The Thin Red Line (1998) • The New World (2005) • Tree of Life (2009)

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