Days Of Heaven
Perhaps the most beautifully photographed film of all time, this classic by Terrence Malick (The Tree Of Life) in which Richard Gere and Sam Shepard compete for the love of Brooke Adams in the golden wheat fields of Texas.
In 1910, Bill, a Chicago steelworker, accidentally kills his supervisor and he, his girlfriend Abby, and his little sister Linda flee to northern Texas, where they find work harvesting wheat in the fields of a prosperous farmer. The farmer falls in love with Abby. Bill has heard that the farmer does not have long to live and convinces Abby to marry the man. However, the farmer does not die and Bill's life takes a completely different turn.
With his second film, DAYS OF HEAVEN, Terrence Malick (THE THIN RED LINE, THE NEW WORLD) announced his characteristic style and manner of filmmaking. Where his debut BADLANDS (1973) was tightly scripted, its successor was, deliberately, a much more loosely structured affair. Malick gave himself the freedom to shoot material not always centred on the lead actors, but also on the land and animals, with the intention of finding the best final form for the whole in postproduction.