Rating: 
Summary: Pretty and Boring (Pretty Boring)
Review: I'd like to preface my review by saying that I admire the work director Terrence Malick did in "Badlands" and for the most part in "The Thin Red Line". This film, though, really misses the mark. It seems more concerned with shots of nature and wheat fields than it is with plot or character development. But the wheat fields sure are pretty. I don't want to say that Richard Gere and Brooke Adams as the young couple on the run give bad performances because the film doesn't allow them to stretch themselves. Only Sam Shepard as the doomed farmer gives anything amounting to a multi-layered performance. See this film, if you must, for it's stunning cinematography but don't expect anything special.
Rating: 
Summary: A masterpiece of cinematography conveying emotion.
Review: I'm sure many of you have seen 'Road to Perdition.' And I'm sure many of you can conclude that the visuals are important to the film because of a lacking in obvious emotional strength. This led to the film's first weakness in that it relied too heavily on the distractingly brilliant cinematography to make up for the uninteresting, often cliched father-son story director Sam Mendes chose to focus on rather than the more interesting and original version of the father-son tale (between Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Daniel Craig). But in 'Days of Heaven', the muted emotions are toned down for a reason. The film surrounds a love triangle between a little girl's brother (Richard Gere), his lover (Brooke Adams) and her terminally ill farmer husband (played by Sam Shepard, who she married for the purpose of inheriting his money after his inevitable death). But this story isn't being told from the perspective of those three adults, but from the perspective of that little girl (played by Linda Manz, who hauntingly provides a voice-over of stunning power) who is, at the time, naive and unaware of the deeper regions of each adult's psyche. She is retelling a part of her life and coming to terms with it. Many of the emotions and strong story points of the love triangle are, with dialogue, rather succinct. But what expresses the emotion is not their speech, but the landscape and nature itself. For instance, there is an intense moment of furious anger, and the oncoming danger is represented by a swarm of disgusting locusts, while the anger is presented as a thriving, uncontrollable power by an equally uncontained fire sprawling across the Texan prairie. Terrence Malick did a masterful job in realizing the power of telling the story from the little girl's perspective, taking advantage of a great cinematographer and a great landscape. I recommend this film to painters, fans of romance, fans of generally wonderful cinema and to fans of brilliant cinematography. It may seem overlong to some depending on how you like the mood and emotions of a film to be expressed. But nevertheless, it's one of the greater movies I've seen in a while; not one to be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Film (RE: the DVD transfer only)
Review: No care was taken into the transfer to DVD. It looks like a 2nd generation copy to me. A shame that no attention was paid this beautiful film. But, that aside, it is indeed..a poem.
Rating:
Summary: John Steinbeck would be proud!
Review: Many who have read quite a number of John Steinbeck's books (preferably Of Mice and Men)can notice the influence toawrds Malick's metaphysical love story. Of Mice and Men is the story about two migrant far workers who search for jobs throughout the hills of Deep South, however it's plot and character actions are ultimately overshadowed by the everpresent forces of nature. Days of Heaven's love triangle also suffers a diminished potency due to the ever-intriguing majesty of God and Mother Earth. Yet many have misidentified the film as a simplistic declaration of human minority. What we have here is instead a phislisophically profound study of human interference and fault. The title might possibly have more to be about the misguiding placidity allured by the American Dream. Like George and Lennie in Of Mice and Men, their ambition is misguided by the falable complexity of the American Dream, and much like Bill and Abby their fall lies responsible towards that dream. Their Days in Heaven are out here in the pastures where they obtain the lattitude, undenialby missing from the modernized world. Yet it is human nature that once again will befall them.
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