Days of Heaven

Days of Heaven (Criterion #409).
1978 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz
Music: Ennio Morricone
Director: Terrence Malick
Amazon listings: Criterion DVD. Original DVD release.

As of this writing, Terrence Malick has directed only four feature films, and is reportedly working on his fifth for release in 2010. Regardless, every single one of them are considered "masterpieces" by film critics, so Malick has to be doing something right by taking his sweet time between projects. Days of Heaven is the first Malick film I've bought and owned, so let's see how I feel about it.

Scenario: Chicago, 1916. A laborer named Bill (Gere) gets into a fight with his boss at the steel mill, and Bill knocks him down, probably killing him. Bill flees the Windy City before he can find out the fate of his boss, along with his sister Linda (Manz) and his girlfriend Abby (Adams). Everyone ends up in the Texas panhandle as seasonal workers for a rich and shy farmer (Shepard) who Bill hears is dying of a mysterious disease. Bill and Abby pose as brother and sister to prevent gossip.

The farmer falls in love with Abby, and Bill encourages her to marry him so they can inherit his money when he dies. After the wedding, Bill stays at the farm as Abby's "brother", but the farmer's foreman begins to suspect their scheme. Unfortunately for Bill, the farmer's health actually stabilizes.

Bill's true relationship with Abby is found out, at a time where she is falling in love with her new husband. The farmer attacks Bill with a gun, but Bill kills him in self defense with a screwdriver. Since there's a class difference between the farmer and Bill, not to mention that scam he was perpetrating, Bill would be considered a murderer if caught. Bill and the girls leave the farm, and the foreman puts the police on their trail. Bill is killed by the police, and Abby goes off on her own after leaving Linda at a boarding school.

Days of Heaven took two years to complete, with Malick scrapping the script after just two weeks, and instead shooting "miles of film with the hope of solving the problems in the editing room". The film fell way behind schedule, and went over its budget. Malick's new approach aggravated Gere, and producer Bert Schneider, who had mortgaged his home to cover the overages. The editing process took over two years to complete, and Malick had great difficulty piecing the film together, until he finally struck on the idea of Manz's character providing narration. Schneider, still angered with Malick, had to ask Paramount for more money to complete the movie, which he was not comfortable with. They got that, and more after a screening with studio executives. Malick was reportedly given "carte blanche" for his next movie, but the ordeal of making Days of Heaven saw him abandon his next movie for Paramount while it was being developed. He would return in 1998 with The Thin Red Line, however.

Highly recommended movie.