Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.
Days of Heaven is one of cinema's great visual achievements — Néstor Almendros's golden-hour and magic-hour cinematography is genuinely transcendent, earning a rare 4. Malick's distinctive poetic approach, impressionistic narration by the child sister, and elliptical storytelling give it an unmistakable singular voice that justifies high Novelty. The acting is solid and naturalistic but not exceptional — Shepard, Adams, and Gere serve the mood more than they dominate the drama. The plot is a fairly classical love-triangle-and-doom structure elevated entirely by its treatment rather than its architecture. The ending is elegiac and appropriate but not a dramatic masterstroke in itself.