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ASIN : B000TXNDV6
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Essential Video
Richard Gere works in a Chicago steel mill at the turn of the 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. Aesthetically flawless, this film about a romantic love triangle is diminished by the small scope of video. Originally shown in 70mm, it is an eye-catching period piece that won its cinematographer, Néstor Almendros, a 1978 Oscar. Texture and color are the unbilled characters in this tragic tale, and are just as important as the players. The story, sadly, fades somewhat when compared to the glory of the visuals. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Customer Reviews
Heartbreaking - the most beautifully shot film of all time (2004-07-15)
How fitting it is that the best movie Richard Gere has ever done, and will ever do, is the one where he probably talks the least. Of course, dialogue isn't what's so breathtakingly beautiful about Days of Heaven, one of the forgotten greats of all time. It's the cinematography (maybe the best of all time, sorry I left this off my list, folks), the sad story that runs through the film, and the overwhelmingly aching tone that just resonates from every frame. Days of Heaven is a quiet, meditative film that flies under the radar in emotion and volume for most of the time. The film roams over the open fields of its locale, half-listening to conversations (even important ones) as maybe the watchful eye of God. I saw this movie once before and bought it on a whim, and am convinced more than ever that most great movies don't reveal themselves totally on the first, or even second time. On viewing #2, I can't get Days of Heaven out of my mind. It's a beautiful, sad little tone poem that resonates more than most explosive, violent movies of the '70's. You're missing out if this one isn't on your shelf. GRADE: A+
A masterpiece of cinematography conveying emotion. (2004-07-14)
I'm sure many of you have seen 'Road to Perdition.' And I'm sure many of you can conclude that the visuals are important to the film because of a lacking in obvious emotional strength. This led to the film's first weakness in that it relied too heavily on the distractingly brilliant cinematography to make up for the uninteresting, often cliched father-son story director Sam Mendes chose to focus on rather than the more interesting and original version of the father-son tale (between Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Daniel Craig). But in 'Days of Heaven', the muted emotions are toned down for a reason.
The film surrounds a love triangle between a little girl's brother (Richard Gere), his lover (Brooke Adams) and her terminally ill farmer husband (played by Sam Shepard, who she married for the purpose of inheriting his money after his inevitable death). But this story isn't being told from the perspective of those three adults, but from the perspective of that little girl (played by Linda Manz, who hauntingly provides a voice-over of stunning power) who is, at the time, naive and unaware of the deeper regions of each adult's psyche. She is retelling a part of her life and coming to terms with it.
Many of the emotions and strong story points of the love triangle are, with dialogue, rather succinct. But what expresses the emotion is not their speech, but the landscape and nature itself. For instance, there is an intense moment of furious anger, and the oncoming danger is represented by a swarm of disgusting locusts, while the anger is presented as a thriving, uncontrollable power by an equally uncontained fire sprawling across the Texan prairie. Terrence Malick did a masterful job in realizing the power of telling the story from the little girl's perspective, taking advantage of a great cinematographer and a great landscape.
I recommend this film to painters, fans of romance, fans of generally wonderful cinema and to fans of brilliant cinematography. It may seem overlong to some depending on how you like the mood and emotions of a film to be expressed. But nevertheless, it's one of the greater movies I've seen in a while; not one to be missed.
A Great Film (RE: the DVD transfer only) (2004-04-20)
This film should really be given the attention it deserves but it appears that this copy is the best we'll get for some time to come. I'm not going to review the film as others have already done this.
I'm only commenting on the transfer - on my DVD player (Pioneer DV-434) at approximately 7:31 there is a digital-glitch that freezes the frame for a split second (the player does NOT go into SEARCH but continues counting properly thus, I place the blame on a poorly encoded transfer - where was their Quality Control?) then, the sound drops out for approximately 2-3 seconds (and the DOLBY DIGITAL indicator on the DVD player also goes out). I notice digital-compression NOISE on the audio track during ALL narration and on nearly ALL audio dialog UNLESS the music or sound-effects mask the noise. You expect this on VHS but on DVD?
I WOULD NOT HESITATE TO PURCHASE THIS FILM, regardless... it IS, as many others have stated, a masterpiece...
As with the films of Godard, Kurosawa, Buñuel etc., you must give yourself over to the directors' vision as auteur. Trust, and you'll be rewarded. If you enjoy films such as: "Last Year At Marienbad", "Vagabond", "Contempt", "Belle De Jour", "The Hired Hand" you will, most likely, enjoy this one.
p.s. Just to be sure it was NOT my DVD player, I sent my first DVD back to Amazon.com and they sent another copy - it performed exactly the same.
You may find it interesting to look up "Days Of Heaven" at imdb.com and click on DVD DETAILS for a more technical analysis.
Great Movie/Bad Copy (2004-03-16)
No care was taken into the transfer to DVD. It looks like a 2nd generation copy to me. A shame that no attention was paid this beautiful film.
But, that aside, it is indeed..a poem.
90 Minutes of Wheat (2004-02-16)
Although that might sound interesting to all of you Malick and wheat lovers out there, it is not. Yes, there are about 10 or 11 shots in the movie that are beautiful. And I know that Terrence Malick is such a genius that he doesn't need to bother with things like story and dialogue. But--except for the death part--I wouldn't care about these characters and their underdeveloped love triangle if they were my best friends. Every time I thought an interesting conversation was about to take place, the film faded to black and then cut to a train or more wheat. If trains and wheat were sex, then this movie would run very closely to a mid-budget, turn-of-the-century porn. But trains and wheat are not sex, so this movie is boring. Also, if you don't want people to bother you about your possible relations with a certain lady, don't say "No, guys, really. It's alright. She's my sister."
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