Days of Heaven

Days of Heaven (1978)

Timing: 1:34 (94 min)

7.5/10
1144

7.409/10
12721

7.7/10
68000

All about film

Video 4

Photo 114

Actors and characters

Release date

1978-09-13

Country

United States

Production

Paramount

Genre

Drama, Romance

Budget

$3 000 000

Revenue

$3 446 749

Website

Director

Terrence Malick

Actors

Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz, Robert J. Wilke, Jackie Shultis, Stuart Margolin, Timothy Scott, Gene Bell, Doug Kershaw
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Terrence Malick

Producer

Bert Schneider, Harold Schneider, Jacob Brackman

Operator

Néstor Almendros

Composer

Ennio Morricone

Artist

Audition

Dianne Crittenden

Editing

Billy Weber
All team (106)

• Almost immediately after filming began, Terrence Malick abandoned his own script and spent nearly a year filming the movie almost entirely based on actors' improvisation. He wanted the actors to "find the story" themselves.
• John Travolta, Al Pacino, and Dustin Hoffman all turned down the role of Bill.
• Due to vision problems, cinematographer Nestor Almendros filmed the movie practically blind. Before each take, his assistant would take a Polaroid photo, which the cinematographer would examine under a powerful magnifying glass.
• A solitary rural house on the horizon, surrounded by wheat fields (this visual image runs throughout the film) is reminiscent of the painting "Christina's World" by the great American artist Andrew Wyeth.
• Terrence Malick spent two years editing this film.
• The scene where Bill falls face-first into the water was filmed in a large aquarium in Sissy Spacek's living room (Terrence Malick had previously worked with Sissy Spacek on his 1973 film 'Badlands').
• The film was shot on location in Alberta, Canada. All the buildings, including the farmhouse, were constructed from plywood by set decorator Jack Fisk.
• The book Linda is flipping through in the farmhouse is an illustrated edition of Rudyard Kipling's 'The Jungle Book'.
• Haskell Wexler, credited as an additional cinematographer, told renowned American film critic Roger Ebert in a private conversation that he actually shot most of the film.
• Striving for maximum realism, costume designer Patricia Norris sewed the costumes from worn clothing and old fabrics.
• Filming proceeded very slowly, mainly during the short 20-minute period of "golden light" immediately preceding sunset.
• The shots of the locust swarm taking flight were filmed as follows: a helicopter circled over the fields, scattering ordinary peanuts in large quantities, while the actors simultaneously backed away. In the finished film, this footage was simply reversed.
• When Bill picks up a rifle at the 84th minute of the film, it is a standard double-barreled shotgun. When he shoots at the police at the 86th minute, he fires three times in a row without reloading.
• Almost immediately after filming began, Terrence Malick abandoned his own script and filmed the movie for about a year almost entirely based on actors' improvisation. He wanted the actors to "find this story" themselves.
• Cinematographer Néstor Almendros, due to vision problems, filmed the movie practically blind. Before each take, his assistant would take a Polaroid photo, which the cinematographer would examine under a powerful magnifying glass.
• The scene in which Bill falls face-first into the water was filmed in a large aquarium in Sissy Spacek's living room (Terrence Malick had worked with Sissy Spacek on his previous film, "Badlands" from 1973).
• The book that Linda flips through at the farmer's house is an illustrated edition of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book".