Días del cielo

I keep hearing everyone saying what a genius Terrence Malick is as a director and I voluntarily believe it, even if the only film of his I’ve watched so far is Badlands, which I liked but didn’t take my breath away. After the excellent trailer for the upcoming The Tree of Life (basically, the only film by Malick that really interests me thematically), I decided to go through his filmography and see with my own eyes the genius that Terrence has within him. My impression immediately after watching Days of Heaven is that if there is any genius, it must have been soundly asleep in the 1970s. Days of Heaven is empty puffy nonsense. I wasn’t expecting any riveting action, but I was expecting riveting performances and, especially, some riveting ideas, but there’s none of that – just a lot of grain and an annoying child voiceover. It’s nicely made, but it left me totally uninterested. 5/10 (20.12.2010)

I'm definitely one of those who doesn't particularly love Terrence Malick. His films aren't bad visually - and in this case, musically - they're interesting, but that just doesn't mean I'll enjoy the movie. This is a pretty ordinary love triangle that is presented in an interesting way, which doesn't make it a perfect film. (09.11.2015)

Pure visual magic and one of the most beautiful films of the 1970s. Back then, Malick did not yet suffer from an obsessive desire to recite the actors' thought processes in philosophical monologues, so he tells the story only through the camera, through images, and the result is truly magical. It was also here that I first realized how much I enjoy the acting of non-actor Sam Shepard. (11.06.2012)

What do you mean that nothing happens in this movie!? I can't fault Richard Gere either, who didn't particularly impress me at first. It was enough to get through the first ten minutes, arrive by train at the farm and enjoy the perfectly filmed splendor (nature once again in one of the main roles)... And it was clear. Then it was Sam Shepard's turn, Days of Heaven took on a whole new dimension, the story took off and ended exactly as it had to. As is Malick's tradition, no matter what happened in the film, at the end I had only a good feeling about what I saw. Except for the horror sequence with locusts, fire and the screwdriver...__P.S. I heard Ennio Morricone's soundtrack from this film for perhaps the very first time, but it immediately became one of my (his) favorites.__P.P.S. Quite possibly the best Malick film. (24.07.2011)

A visual feast. Nature-attuned Malick follows in the footsteps of Hollywood legend John Ford, emphasizing image composition filled with grand landscape shots (Néstor Almendros's cinematography during the night scene of burning locusts recalls the best of Roger Deakins). The story itself—a love triangle with a bit of an agricultural Bonnie and Clyde feel—may not be particularly original, but the presentation, framed by Morricone's traditionally superb score, turns it into a captivating tale of the unpredictability of human fate and the hardships of making a living. It casts its magic spell right from the stunning opening credits (period photographs accompanied by "Aquarium" from Saint-Saëns's "Carnival of the Animals"), making it easy to be swept away. (29.05.2019)