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.
| 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 |
| 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
By October 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 included Paul Schrader and David . . . Read more »
By August 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 . . . Read more »
January 19, 2011
British cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who passed away in 2009 at the age of ninety-four, was a Technicolor trailblazer. When the American film lab opened an outpost at England’s Denham Studios in . . . Read more »
November 19, 2010
The Office’s Rainn Wilson stopped by NPR’s Morning Edition today to talk movies, in the latest in a series that has Hollywood stars recommend DVDs. As it turns out, three of his picks are Criterion . . . Read more »
May 28, 2010
As enormous fans of Terrence Malick’s films (Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line), we’re anticipating his forthcoming feature The Tree of Life as breathlessly as anyone. And like everyone else, we’re . . . Read more »
May 11, 2010
A treat for fans of the visual splendors of Terrence Malick and David Lynch movies: in the spring 2010 issue of Filmmaker magazine, production designer Jack Fisk—who’s created some of contemporary . . . Read more »
