Review: DAYS OF HEAVEN

DAYS OF BOREDOM

(reviewed on Turner Classic Movies Sunday, June 20th, 1999)

    Last Christmas Terrence Malick received an extraordinary amount of press for his epic, WWII Guadalcanal film, “The Thin Red Line”. The reason for this was because Malick had made two small artsy type films that critics really liked, “Badlands” and “Days of Heaven”. Then he took 20 years off and finally returned with “The Messy Thin Red Line”.
    Let me tell you something that everyone in the world knows is concretely true. Terrence Malick is not a good director. He’s not even an okay director. He’s a bad director. He makes good looking films. Bad good looking films. “Badlands” was awful. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek go off and build a tree house or some shit. “Badlands” wasn’t even good looking, it was silly and stupid at the very same time. I didn’t see it when it first came out. Fine, lay that on me. “You didn’t see it when it first came out. Back then it was different.” Don’t give me that shit. A good movie you can watch anytime, any place, and it’s still good. I watched “Badlands” and thought it was horrible. The film that totally ripped it off, “True Romance”, was much, much, much, much better. “The Messy Thin Red Line” was awesome looking, poetic in it’s direction, yet it made no comprehensible sense. It was because Malick shot ten hours worth of film and forced it down into three hours that make no sense. Malick is good at photographing nature and sunsets. Make him a cinematographer, or better yet, make him a photographer at National Geographic. Just get him out of film. Though more or less he’s never really been in film anyway.
    “Days of Heaven” is trumpeted as Malick’s masterpiece. Why they say this I don’t have a clue. Richard Gere plays some dude in an iron factory with lots of orange sparks. He runs away after some sort of fight. He goes with his girlfriend and a kid that is maybe his daughter or maybe hers or maybe just some kid. I watched the whole damn movie and still don’t know.
    Gere goes to the middle of Texas where he helps with the crop of wheat some rich farmer yields each year. Gere’s g-friend eventually ends up in a lover’s quarrel with the rich dude and soon enough the plot is in high gear.
    What a fucking overstatement! This film is the slowest film I’ve ever seen in my entire life. The plot is only there so we have a reason why these people are walking around in the wheat fields all year. The characters are cardboard, the fucking sunset has more personality. The film won an Oscar for cinematographer. Shit, If I made a movie which focused solely on nature I’d win an Oscar too.
    So basically, “Days of Heaven” looks magnificent. But it’s a goddamned movie! This isn’t a Travel channel special! Malick forgot what a movie is. He’s not re-defining anything except what boring means. This movie moves so slow I graduated college before the credits rolled. ½* (out of ****)