Days of Heaven (1978) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

One-of-a-kind filmmaker-philosopher Terrence Malick has created some of the most visually arresting films 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 steelworker (Richard Gere) accidentally kills his supervisor, and he, his girlfriend (Brooke Adams), and his little sister (Linda Manz) flee to the Texas panhandle, where they find 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 a timeless American idyll that is also 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

Disc Features

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 (with DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition)
Audio commentary featuring Weber, art director Jack Fisk, costume designer Patricia Norris, and casting director Dianne Crittenden
Audio interview with actor Richard Gere
Video interviews with Bailey, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and actor Sam Shepard
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Adrian Martin and a chapter from director of photography Nestor Almendros’s autobiography

From the Current

Days of Heaven:
On Earth as It Is in Heaven

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 . . .

Striking Gold

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 . . .