X
- 1978
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
- 1978
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
Summary One of the most critically acclaimed films of all time, Days Of Heaven is a moving story about two men who love the same woman. A fugitive from the slums of Chicago, finds himself pitted against a shy, rich Texan for the love of Abby. Writer/director Malick's film is an extraordinary cinematic achievement of sight and sound. [Paramount ...
Directed By: Terrence Malick
Written By: Terrence Malick
- 1978
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
- 1978
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
Days of Heaven
8.0
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Summary One of the most critically acclaimed films of all time, Days Of Heaven is a moving story about two men who love the same woman. A fugitive from the slums of Chicago, finds himself pitted against a shy, rich Texan for the love of Abby. Writer/director Malick's film is an extraordinary cinematic achievement of sight and sound. [Paramount ...
Directed By: Terrence Malick
Written By: Terrence Malick
Where to Watch
Coming Soon
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 20 Critic Reviews
94
90% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
10% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 20 Critic Reviews
94
90% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
10% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Days of Heaven is a big advance, hauntingly beautiful in image, sound and rhythm, unashamedly poetic, brimming with sweetness and bitterness, darkness and light. [18 Sept. 1978, p.97]
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 166 User Ratings
8.0
85% Positive
141 Ratings
141 Ratings
11% Mixed
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
4% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 166 User Ratings
8.0
85% Positive
141 Ratings
141 Ratings
11% Mixed
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
4% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Sep 24, 2025
There are some movies are like Dorothy's twister in The Wizard of Oz; they just pick you up and whisk you away from the commonplace world you know to a world wondrous and astonishing. "Days of Heaven" is such a movie. Above all one of the most beautiful films ever made. Terrence Malick's purpose is not to tell a story of melodrama, but one of loss. His tone is elegiac, he evokes the loneliness and beauty of the limitless Texas prairie.
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Rarely has a film bared itself to simple majesty...it feels epic yet runs barely over and hour and a half. [22 Oct. 1997]
Days of Heaven is the grand climax of the whole "Bonnie and Clyde"-"Badlands" tradition of outlaw-lovers-on-the-run movies. Shot by Nestor Almendros and the uncredited Haskell Wexler, it's a cinematographic masterpiece. [20 March 1998]
Director Malick endows this simple, timeless story with the enormous scope and resonance of myth through a clear vision unclouded by sentimentality and by a deft juxtaposition of image, music, and character.
By Staff (Not Credited) FULL REVIEW
Days of Heaven is so unapologetically beautiful, so calculatingly gorgeous, it is certain to arouse resentment in the minds of those who find visual hedonism a sin in movies, and to arouse suspicion, if not outrage, in those who require that movies have heart. [22 Sept. 1978]
It is full of elegant and striking photography; and it is an intolerably artsy, artificial film.
By Harold C. Schonberg FULL REVIEW
Jan 31, 2017
Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven is an evocative piece of visual poetry about love and murder. The story is perspicaciously, and so effortless told through the understandings of the narrator and undisputable blessings of nature; giving the film an emotional as well as an aesthetic approach. As we journey through the flamboyant liveliness of the Texas prairie, we learn underlying themes of love, betrayal, deception, grief, and even death through an unforgiving and a contentious love triangle. Eloquent, imaginative, visionary, and superb are some of the words that significantly define this movie. Days of Heaven is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.
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Oct 2, 2024
A documentary that gets personal with the owners of two southern California pet burial grounds and a few of their clients. Filmed in the late ‘70s, when one such niche cemetery was preparing to close up for good, Gates of Heaven features a series of philosophically-inclined talking heads with pontifications to spare. Mac, the empathetic soon-to-be ex-owner, waxes poetic over the beauty of an owner/pet relationship while the boss of a nearby rendering plant, all business, sneers and gloats over the uncomfortable facts of animal disposal in an urban setting. Cal, who runs the more successful memorial service (still in operation as of 2023), knows how to say what the grieving owners want to hear, but his two sons haven’t taken note and strive for different dreams. Roger Ebert listed this as one of his ten all-time favorite films, which is how it came to my attention. I can share his fascination, if not his appreciation. Although it’s slow, meandering and limited, there’s something curious and alien about this kind of document, a window into another time and place that was once so unremarkable and now seems so novel. People no longer speak like they did forty years ago, they don’t dress the same or share similar tastes in interior décor. They're more forthcoming and earnest, more willing to put their opinions about mortality, humanity and spirituality on the eternal record. This frank sense of unguarded openness leads to abrupt laughs and deep thoughts alike, although we can’t quite tell how much of the dry humor each speaker is actually in on. Ebert found much under the surface of these interviews, leading statements that he followed to a sort of personal meditation. My own attention levels weren’t quite so sharply engaged.
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Jan 26, 2017
By 1978, we had wonderful films released such as "Star Wars", "Jaws", "The Exorcist", "Halloween", and so many masterpieces. This film, however, is a huge step backwards from what has been accomplished in cinema by the time of its release, and for that reason is incredibly overrated. While the film no doubts accomplishes a beautiful mise-en-scene, literally making every shot worthy of a painting in a museum, it is the story's uneven and misplaced narrative that ruins the experience for the viewer. This is especially true when it comes to the "voice-of-God" narrator who is rambling-on like a three-year-old about all these random facts that seldom connect with the current events on-screen. If this was a film released around the early 1900s when cinema was still in its primitive form, this would be completely understandable. Yet considering how far film has come when this film was released, it is simply a huge disappointment. This film only has the high review that it has because of the "elitists" who automatically dub every piece of art that cannot be understood easily and immediately as "the best art humanity has to offer". Yet in reality they cannot admit that while this film has its beautiful moments it lacks the key element all proper films need; a clear narrative.
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Jan 27, 2014
Beautiful cinematography does not make a movie good and this film is a perfect example of that. It is quite boring and feels like nothing more than an exercise in showing the most beautiful images possible over and over. The film has a heart and an interesting story upon examination, but it never truly hooks you in and for that reason, I cannot praise this film. However, it is a phenomenal film that should continue to be seen as a masterpiece of cinematography. If only Malick put as much effort into making the story less dry.
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Dec 7, 2024
I really enjoyed the first 30 minutes because it felt like an “easy watch” and unlike anything i had seen, so I was thinking that this film would live up to the stratospheric reviews. But then it had a series of disjointed, unpolished transitions, as if there were multiple 2-3 minute segments that had been accidentally deleted. The enjoyability was further weakened by an absence of any substantive character development. Also, when the story unfolded iwith 2-3 hugely important events, there was no rise in dramatic effect. Instead, the events just happened, like an ancient silent film with flat affect on the actors’ faces.
It wasn’t offensively bad at all but just seemed so…old and had an amateurish feel.
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 2 Nominations
National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
