Before teaching Julia Roberts some class in Pretty Woman and before tap-dancing his way through the law in Chicago, Richard Gere starred in one of the best, albeit lesser known, films of his career. In 1978, the young Gere played Bill, a factory worker who flees to the fields of the Texas Panhandle in Terrence Malick’s beautifully bleak Days of Heaven.
Accompanied by his girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams) and 12-year-old sister Linda (Linda Manz), Bill hopes to escape the toil of factory work and the trouble he’s gotten himself into in pre-World War I Chicago. Abby and Bill pose as brother and sister to avoid excessive questions and the three take up work as field hands among the golden wheat of a young, wealthy farmer. The farmer falls in love with Abby and when Bill learns the man is ill and expected to only live another year, he encourages her to accept his marriage proposal.
While the plot may not seem that remarkable – the story of a complicated love triangle is almost on the same level as the hackneyed romantic comedies Gere is best known for – the details of the film make it so. The viewer is lead through the grim tale by Linda; her childish vocabulary and thick Southern accent contrast her profound commentary and narration as the camera slowly pans the vast fields. With very sparse dialogue and long scenes filled with little action, the storyline and characters take backseat to an excellent soundtrack and the incredible cinematography that won the film an Academy Award in 1979.
The sun-drenched fields provide the perfect backdrop for the actors, who are silhouetted onto skies that seem to stretch forever. With so much beauty, a compelling story is almost unnecessary. But, despite this fact, Days of Heaven is much more than eye candy – the stunning images are in sharp contrast to the dark tale of love and lies.
Although not lacking moments of pure joy, such as a bonfire with the circus that has come through town and long hours spent strolling the countryside, the characters’ days soon become anything but heaven.
The couple’s scheme to win the farmer’s inheritance falls flat when suspicions are raised about whether Abby and Bill are really related, and in a fit of rage the jealous farmer sets his fields on fire. The moment is bittersweet for the viewer, though, who is left battling the horrific events against the magnificent images of the burning fields. This dichotomy is recurrent – a swarm of locusts ruins the crop but makes for excellent footage, and murder takes place in the picturesque fields. But two hours of striking footage don’t make the tale any easier to take in.
Days of Heaven is a cinematic masterpiece and chronicles intense events that can bring fervor to even the most isolated places.
