It would not be hyperbole to assert thatDays of Heavenis the most beautiful film ever captured on celluloid. The 1978 romantic period drama was so breathtakingly poetic in its visual and thematic language that no one could’ve blamed writer-directorTerrence Malickfor disappearing from public life for 20 years. He did temporarily walk away from filmmaking on a high note, but the enigmatic director’s extended fallow period could also attest to the torturous production of the film,which came as a result ofMalick’s unwavering visionthat pushed his multiple cinematographers to the max.
If the gorgeous vistas, shot against “magic hour,” an ephemeral period just as the sun is about to set, weren’t impressive enough, every impeccable image was crafted by a director of photography,Néstor Almendros, who was slowly losing his vision while filming. Fitting for a movie of such biblical proportions, perhaps Almendros' images on the screen were actually acts of God.
Néstor Almendros Was Going Blind When Working With Terrence Malick on ‘Days of Heaven’
In cinema history, there has never been anyone like Terrence Malick, an artist known for his reclusive persona and transcendentalist portraits of people working with and against nature. While we know little about him as a person, his films are perhaps the most idiosyncratic among all his directing peers.Days of Heaven,miraculously only his second feature,distills Malick’s worldview into one searing film about the agonizing loss of innocence and the perpetual longing for a better lifedown the road.Despite its opulent visual language and weighty themes, the film’s streamlined narrative is a familiar but rich love triangle between Bill (Richard Gere), his girlfriend posing as his sister, Abby (Brooke Adams), and a wealthy but dying farmer (Sam Shepard).
When discussingDays of Heaven, thevisual language always takes precedence. This is not to suggest that it is an example of style over substance, as the depth of the harvest field and burning sun against the horizon enhances the film’s ruminations on love and loss. Malick demanded absolute perfection behind the camera, which narrowed the amount of time there was to shoot coverage. In his book,A Man With a Camera,Almendros claimed thatDays of Heaven"was not a rigidly prepared film,“a staple of Malick’s improvisational and exploratory style. Mastering the ornate visual language, inspired by silent cinema, was an arduous task considering that the magic hour is a misnomer, as this period only lasts roughly 25 minutes.
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Never have sunrises and sunsets looked so good.
To further complicate matters, Almendros was gradually losing his vision during the production ofDays of Heaven. Since union regulations prevented him from operating the camera,he and Malick would map out the camera movements before calling “action,” and Almendros would jump from camera to camera, directing other operators on where to position themselves. InPeter Biskind’s tell-all of theNew Hollywood movement in the ’60s and ’70s,Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Almendros “had one of his assistants take Polaroids of the scene, then examined them through powerful glasses.” In aninterview for Criterion,Richard Gere confirmed that Almendros was “almost blind” during filming.
The Awe-Inspiring Visuals of ‘Days of Heaven’ Transcends the Human Eye
The set pieces Almendros was capturing—notably the iconic locust swarm and the harvest being engulfed in an inferno—would be dangerous for anyone without visual impairments.“Several times we were alarmed because the fire spread too rapidly,“the DP wrote in his book. Between the physicallydemanding nature of the productionand the interminable length of the production, it’s a wonder how this film ever got completed, let alone wound up as one of the most celebrated movies of its era. Due to commitments to other projects, Almendros eventually had to exitDays of Heaven, with another esteemed cinematographer,Haskell Wexler, taking over, who received an “additional photography” credit.
“It was a dangerous adventure that might have ended in a serious accident, but this was a blessed film,” Néstor Almendros wrote of the fire sequence. Yes, the aptly titledDays of Heavenmay have just been an act of divine intervention.The images in Terrence Malick’s filmwere not photographed; they were painted.The overwhelming beauty and passion in the shots of the sky and fields could not have been captured by the naked eye. Almendros didn’t need to have 20/20 vision, as he was seemingly guided by a higher power of cinematic brilliance to craft these shots that are burned into every cinephile’s head.
Néstor Almendros would go on to win an Academy Award for his work onDays of Heaven, and he is somehow the only person to ever win an Oscar for a Terrence Malick film. The DP, who died of complications from AIDS at 61 years old in 1992, worked with legendary directors likeFrançois Truffaut,Éric Rohmer,Alan J. Pakula, andMike Nichols, and his work will endure beyond time.
Days of Heaven
