One-of-a-kind filmmaker-philosopher Terrence Malick has created some of the most visually arresting movies of the twentieth century, and his glorious period tragedy Days of Heaven, featuring Oscar-winning cinematography by Nestor Almendros, stands out among them. In 1910, a Chicago steel worker (Richard Gere) accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend (Brooke Adams) and little sister (Linda Manz) to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer (Sam Shepard). A love triangle, a swarm of locusts, a hellish fire—Malick captures it all with dreamlike authenticity, creating at once a timeless American idyll and a gritty evocation of turn-of-the-century labor.
Cast
| Bill | Richard Gere |
| Abbey | Brooke Adams |
| The farmer | Sam Shepard |
| Linda | Linda Manz |
| The farm foreman | Robert J. Wilke |
| Linda's friend | Jackie Shultis |
| Mill foreman | Stuart Margolin |
| Harvest hand | Timothy Scott |
Credits
| Director | Terrence Malick |
| Cinematography | Nestor Almendros |
| Additional photography | Haskell Wexler |
| Producer | Bert Schneider and Harold Schneider |
| Executive producer | Jacob Brackman |
| Editing | Bill Weber |
| Music | Ennio Morricone |
| Non-original music by | Camille Saint-Saens |
| Casting | Dianne Crittenden |
| Art director | Jack Fisk |
| Set decorator | Robert Gould |
| Costume designer | Patricia Norris |
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Terrence Malick, editor Billy Weber, and camera operator John Bailey
- New Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring Weber, art director Jack Fisk, costume designer Patricia Norris, and casting director Dianne Crittenden
- New video interviews with cinematographers Haskell Wexler and Bailey
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Adrian Martin and director of photography Nestor Almendros
by Adrian Martin
Oct 22, 2007
Like many American directors who emerged in the early 1970s, Terrence Malick went to film school—to the American Film Institute, where, indeed, his fellow students...
by Lee Kline
Aug 14, 2007
When I found out last year that we’d be working on Days of Heaven, I got goose bumps. It’s always been one of my favorite films, and I had wished it could be in the Criterion Collection ever since I started here twelve years ago—that and Sixteen Candles (I’m very diverse). Paramount...