Movies

Terrence Malick #2: Days of Heaven

This is the second essay in my analysis of each of Malick’s films. You can find the first one on Badlands here.

Malick’s next film after Badlands is titled Days of Heaven, released in 1978. The film is about Bill, a man who murdered someone in the big industrial city. He runs away to a farm with his sister Linda and his girlfriend Abby. They work on the farm for a rich landowner simply known as The Farmer. He has no name, as the only named characters in this film are Bill, Abby and Linda. The rest have simple titles like Farm Foreman, and are recognized by their powerful performances.

Malick begins his journey into questions on faith here in Days of Heaven. The title of the film is already a giveaway as to the nature of its narrative.

The film tells the story of a group living out their few days in relative bliss, only for this bliss to be upended and for everything to come crashing down around them. The beauty and the comfort they once felt could not last forever. It had to come to an end. Humanity had tried to create a heaven on earth but it could not. It found itself too tied to temptations and materialism.

This might seem like a limited reading of the film, and it is. Days of Heaven has a lot to offer as a film. It is constructed with a rich thematic core, one that…