Analysis Of The Movie Days Of Heaven By Terrence Malick

The film Days of Heaven (1978), directed by Terrence Malick, is a populist agrarian film that follows the lives of poor lovers who travel to the Panhandle, Texas to find work in 1916. Populist Agrarian films emerged throughout the 1930 s, a period during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, which accompanied poverty, starvation, and homelessness in its wake. in my opinion, the Days of Heaven is a revisionist film that portrays a dystopian agrarian way of life.The urbanization of society is depicted negatively whereas rural, remote areas of wide and empty land are associated with paradise. However, the rural town of Texas Panhandle is consumed with darkness by the protagonist s selfish pursuit of money, property, and leisure. Days of Heaven is a critically acclaimed film, primarily due to its unsympathetic characters making it incredibly difficult for the audience to relate. Agrarian and Western film genres share a quality of the everyday man. In John Fords, The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Tom Joad fits that category to a tee; however, Bill, played by Richard Greer, is portrayed as a selfish, violent, and cowardly anti-hero. For example, Bill fled after accidentally killing his supervisor and fled again after stabbing the wealthy, prominent farmer. In the first act, the dialogue between Bill and his supervisor is interrupted by noise in the factory. However, the second offense takes place on land with no bystanders. It is quiet, yet there is no dialogue between Bill and theShow MoreRelatedThe Movies Badlands ( 1973 ) And Days Of Heaven1212 Words   |  5 PagesThe movies Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978) are both directed by the acclaimed movie maker Terrence Malick. Both of these films have been dee med culturally significant by the Library of Congress and have been inducted in 1993 and 2007 respectively. The basis of this paper is to take these two movies and shed some light behind their creator’s process. The justification for this analysis is to prove with examples that Terrence Malick is an example of an auteur. Through the use of mise en scene