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Actors: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Days of Heaven |
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Bill and Abby are a young, poor couple who flee Chicago early in the 20th century after Bill accidentally kills a fellow worker. They head south and west, pretending to be brother and sister, with Linda, Abby's 12-year-old sister, who narrates the tale. Eventually they arrive in the wheat fields of the Texas panhandle and find work on the farm of a handsome young farmer. The farmer falls in love with Abby and wants to marry her; when Bill and Abby learn that he is ill and may live only another year, they decide that she should marry him. When he doesn't die, jealousy and impatience lead to a crisis. Color and texture are almost characters in themselves with this gorgeous 1978 film, written and directed by Terrence Malick, and filmed mostly during "the magic hour" of dusk when the sky is white (or gold, or blue) and there's no sun. Malick made a masterpiece with this movie, but would not make another until "The Thin Red Line" 20 years later.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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DAYS OF HEAVEN is the second movie of Terrence Malick he wrote and directed in 1978. Nestor Almendros won the Academy award in the Best Cinematography category.
1916. Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Linda Manz leave Chicago and its factories by train in order to find employment in a farm in Texas. In order to avoid questions, Gere and Adams pretend to be brother and sister. All summer, they harvest the fields of Sam Shepard, a rich handsome farmer suffering from a terminal disease. Sam falls in love with Adams who, with the approval of Richard Gere, accepts to marry him. But the naive Shepard seems to get better and Gere becomes jealous. As the crickets invade Shepard's fields, the confrontation between Gere and Shepard becomes inevitable. After a dramatic fight, Gere, Adams and Manz must run away to escape the policemen.
A UFO in Hollywood production. Masterpiece.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Days of Heaven |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1900-1920's
Romance/Love/Hugging
Yes
Kind of romance:
- love triangle/polygon
Job/Profession/Poverty Story?
Yes
Job:
- farmer
Poverty story?
Yes
Poverty plotlets:
- coping with poverty (general)
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- blue collar
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
- wild
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard wavey
Body type
- (man) average
Unclothed?
- Chest
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
How much in movie?
- 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- farmer
Eccentric:
Yes
- deluded
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard wavey
Body type
- (man) average
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- physically sick
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Texas
- Midwest
Prairie?
Yes
City?
Yes
City:
- Chicago
Farm/Ranch?
Yes
Farm/Ranch:
- lot of descript of crop raising
Misc setting
- moving train
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
- explicit references to deaths
Movie makes you feel...
- depressed/sad
- thoughtful
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references only
- kissing
If soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Orchestra/classical
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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