To get you in the mood (if only to hear Linda speak one more time, listen to Leo Kottke’s twelve-string traveling theme, watch a few more sunset soaked shots and consider those amber waves of grain – with a little theology tossed in for good measure), watch the following:
Terrence Malick is not interested in doing much of the heavy lifting for his audience. He expects viewers to engage with aural and visual (lots of non-verbal) details in order to make sense of his story. This is the kind of film that requires information discerned and shared by a number of eyes and ears for a clear understanding of the whole. Everybody pitch in here by responding to ONE of the following by the end of the day:
1. Communities figure rather prominently in the first eight films we’ve watched. What did you observe about community in this story?
2. This is a bit more challenging: what meaning do you see in the film’s title?
3. If you are feeling particularly motivated, take a swing of the analytical scythe to glean this crop: where is faith in this film?
I do believe that communities are very important in this film. At least, they are certainly prominent. Communities actually seem to be everywhere in this film. For example, the community of factory workers, farm workers, community of animals on the farm, of insects (locusts), of lovers, of family, of poor people, and finally, the community of pain that is thrust upon many of the characters in this film at various points. The worker communities are the most obvious. Groups of poor people working as farm hands during the harvest season, soon catching an illegal ride out of town on the train. They are branded together to get the work done, survive, and get paid. However despite this, there is fighting within the community of workers, between Bill and another man. Which is similar to the fighting between Bill and the rich guy for the girl (sorry I'm bad with names) in the community of lovers. I thought the community of animals on the farm was very interesting, because it gives us yet another community (like the flying circus guys) to contrast the rich people and Bill's "family" with. And apparently, to do that, all you need is a couple shots of animals at the end of every other scene. As for communities overall, I observed in this film that they are there to be 1: contrasted and compared with each other, and 2: to allow the viewers to take the groups and communities and make generalizations and stereotypical assumptions about the people in those communities. For example, we compare the animals to the workers. They both want and need the crops, but for their own selfish purposes. And for example, we know Bill and his "family" are part of the train hitching group, so we can assume that they are poor workers who are looking for labor as a job and for a source of money so they can survive. Therefore, I think the communities in the story are necessary, because they allow the viewers to compare them and make assumptions to gain knowledge about the characters in them.
ReplyDeleteHeaven is supposed to be this perfect idyllic place that brings complete peace to your soul, but there's multiple sides to everything. I think that to Bill, Abby, and Linda, the farm is a heavenly place where they can forget about everything that happened to them before (particularly Bill's transgressions towards his boss) and just start clean. To The Farmer, who only has a little while longer due to whatever illness he has, Abby is his heaven; he often refers to her as an angel. However, for both parties, things aren't as heavenly as they seem. Bill and Abby get involved with a plot to get all of The Farmer's wealth since they know he's sick, and it costs Bill his life and Abby her two love interests. The Farmer gets in too deep in his love for Abby and hatred and jealousy towards Bill for having Abby's love, and it costs him his crop, his sanity and his life. Also, Linda is in heaven after being propelled into a life of wealth but just when she gets comfortable it is taken away from her. I think Malick is suggesting that not everything is what it appears to be, and that greed and the desire for a heavenly existence will ultimately hurt (or kill) you in the end.
ReplyDeleteThe title of the film “Days of Heaven” carries a meaning that has a positive but also negative side. When Bill and his “family” first enter the farm, they enter through a gate. In the Bible it is said that you enter heaven through its gates, and St. Peter will be standing there to greet you. It seems a little ridiculous to have a gate to farm in the middle of nowhere, but once the family enters the gate, their lives change forever. Heaven is said to be a place of infinite peace and happiness, but in the movie the happiness can only last for so long; like Linda said, everyone has both evil and good in them and one will eventually win over the other. Linda also says at one point that there is a devil on the farm causing unhappiness and unrest to their family. However, it doesn’t seem clear to her that her brother and his lover are part of that devil. When I hear the word days in the title of the movie, it seems that days carries the connotation that heaven can only last so long; the days start to come to an end when the farmer learns of Bill and Abby’s affair. It seems that all good things must come to an end eventually, but that those who have not done wrong will still be happy. After Abby leaves Linda, she still seems happy. Linda is the only character throughout the entire film who has never asked for more than she is given. Her heaven is wherever she goes, not just the farm. “Days of Heaven” shows that for some people heaven isn’t infinite, but for others it can be.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the opening sequence’s narration, Days of Heaven has a distinctly pre-apocalyptic feel. Days of Heaven could refer to the good days on Earth prior to the apocalypse, when everything will catch on fire. The movie didn’t focus on religion, and the religious scene was not very prominent. None of the characters were caught up in struggles with morality. The movie focuses instead on the earthly lives of the characters, giving heaven a secular meaning. The times shown in the movie are the good days. Even when the protagonists are working, they still have fun, and the young lovers are together. Retrospectively, these times must seem heavenly to the man. Their time as rich people is also very fun and blissful. The landscape around them is a heaven; it is beautiful and idyllic, and they can do what they please there, at least after the woman marries the aristocrat. Most of the movie is a grand old heavenly time, at least from the girl’s point of view. Days of Heaven sounds fundamentally nostalgic, and by the end of the movie, times have gotten worse. Both of the woman’s lovers die and the protagonist girl, in essence, goes back to the searching, traveling life she once led. Days of Heaven refers to the period that they spent on the farm, but in retrospect.
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ReplyDeleteI think that the film's title when taken in context with the rest of the film is very ambiguous. At certain moments, the audience sees beauty and goodness. We are presented with scenes of rolling fields of wheat and people relaxing and making merry. It seems like the only goodness and purity in the film, the part that relates the most to Heaven, is only aesthetic. Many of the interactions between the people in the film, beyond dancing around a fire, are deceitful and amoral. Bill pawns Abby off in an attempt to gain a more secure future for himself and Linda and kills two men. Also, the theme of industry fits into this contradiction of the Heavenly aspects of the film; the farmer is wholly a part of this. His six figure profit depends on the underpaid migrant workers he picks from a train. If the story is consistent with the mores of the time period, then the farmer is just another tycoon trying to exact the maximum amount of profit out of his fields, and essentially abusing the workers who make his wealth possible. In addition, the hellish scenes of machines in factories or fire on the prairie are all created by humanity. Humans constructed these factories and machines and the fire is caused by the farmer's wrath against Bill. Days of Heaven paints a very bleak portrait of human interaction, and these contradictions lead me to believe that while Heaven might be around us in the beauty of nature, human interaction spoils that beauty and purity. This standpoint makes the title of the film slightly ironic, as the audience realizes through the film that the "Days of Heaven" are far, far away.
Question One:
ReplyDeleteIn this movie, communities are intensely strong. Because of the hardships of working on farm as migrant workers, the laborers bond together and create their own kind of life. Whether sharing cigarettes, wrestling, or holding dances, the migrant laborers are more than just coworkers. For example, Linda is rescued from the girls’ school by a fellow worker whom she barely knows. While the Farmer is not a part of the community, he tries to create his own by marrying Abby and letting her “siblings” live in his home. Together they form their own community and spend all of their time together. This reminds me of Gran Torino, because, like the Farmer, Walt is adopted into a new family with a very different culture, and dies protecting them (although Walt protected them from real, instead of perceived, danger). The community forms a very consistent presence in the movie, showing up every year to perform the same job. However, they are not consistent enough to be trusted. Bill and Abby lie about their relationship, creating a community that allows false pretenses in order to remain functional. However, most communities have secrets from each other. The community that the Farmer, Abby, Linda, and Bill create is a prime example of such a community. Abby and Bill lie to the farmer, about their relationship and Abby’s feelings for the Farmer. However, the community stays together through bonds of affection, instead of trust. Despite his doubts, the Farmer likes Bill, and Abby grows to love the Farmer. Some communities, like the workers, are formed from necessity, while others are formed by affection. Both have their place in the movie.
I think that the title serves for two reasons. The three main characters, Bill, Linda and Abby, have times that make their lives so much easier, as if they had finally reached heaven (in comparison to their past experiences, their new ones were like heaven). But on the flip side, things revert back to being difficult for the three which shows that, as Rishi said, their days in heaven might not be as close as they expected. Coming from the recent crime Bill committed, the farm seems like the safe haven for them. Abby's newfound love and the shelter that Bill and Linda have due to this help their situation. But at the same time, the love triangle that forms and the jealously that comes with it causes their good days to quickly end. As I said before, the days in heaven for the three don't stay for long because Bill kills the farmer and they must go on the run once again. In the end, Bill gets killed and Abby and Linda split up. Even though it appeared like they had finally found their time in heaven as the title says, they eventually come to the realization that they have to strive harder to truly reach these good times again.
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ReplyDeleteListening to this clip, I don’t even remember hearing all that rapture talk when I watched it in class. Terrance Malick puts that lulling music and those beautiful landscape shots in there in real juxtaposition. This sets a dark but subtle tone for the rest of the movie. Linda talks about how people can be both angels and devils. In the same way, there can be heaven and hell. So if the title is days of heaven, are there days of hell? Duh. Perhaps the days of heaven are the prosperous care-free times when the couple has just conned the farmer and things are working out. The entire landscape is pretty heavenly isn’t it? Then the fire at the end of the movie must be the days of hell. This scene is foreshadowed when Linda talks about rapture. According to Linda, the good people were supposed to be saved and then the world would go up in flames with all the sinners. Abbey and Bill aren’t saved because they conned the farmer. The music in the beginning is completely opposite from the end music that almost sounds like it belongs in a horror film. This further shows the change from heaven to hell.
I think that the title, Days of Heaven, represents the time when all of the main characters were living happily on the farm. For the farmer, he was happy to be together with Abby. For Abby, Bill, and Linda, they were happy to be wealthy and finally able to live an ‘easy life’ on the farm. However, like Jenny said, I think that Terrence Malick’s idea of “Heaven” is a place that is neither completely good nor entirely bad. From the outside the farm looks like a pure and carefree place, with Abby and the farmer being a loving couple and Linda and Bill happily taking care of the farm and house. However, in reality, Abby and Bill are conning the farmer out of his money. As seen from the opening, Linda’s narration foreshadows an apocalyptic end for everyone, with fire sweeping the earth, and at the end of the movie this foreshadowing does come true in a way. I think that the fact the movie begins and ends with fire represents the sinful life Abby and Bill were living before and after the farm, but during their lives on the farm everything was going well according to each of their own individual hopes/desires
ReplyDelete3. It was a little hard for me to miss the apocalyptic, fire and brimstone sort of imagery throughout the film: the animals being driven out by the machinery, then the locust and the fire. It’s like God from the Old Testament makes a cameo to smite the adultery/immorality (or whatever the heck is going on between Abby and Bill)! I couldn’t help but notice the allusion to the plagues of Egypt. Perhaps part of faith in this film is the juxtaposition of beauty and violence: a reminder that God creates beautiful, wonderful things, but also has the capacity to burn it all to the ground if angered (or, I suppose you could argue, simply felt like burning everything to the ground for no reason). For me, the themes of faith and freedom present the question of whether each of us is predestined to do certain things (kind of like a train on a track) or whether we truly are free to say and do whatever we wish (like the flying circus). Finally, faith is in each character in the film because, as Linda says, “Nobody’s perfect. There never was a perfect person. You just got half devil and half angel in you.”
ReplyDeleteFirst of all there is a very pointed statement about communities in general as a whole in regards to money. The Farmer is one of the richest people in texas yet he confesses to feeling incredibly alone. The laborers are dirt poor yet they have a thriving community between them found through a sense of hardship. Finally, Abby leaves with Bill despite her feelings for the farmer because her bond with Bill is stronger, it's a cultivation of years of work and poverty. Perhaps what the director is saying is that the American Dream isn't realized through gratuitous amounts of wealth, but lasting community. Real value can't be achieved materially. The director at many points in the film the strength of community. How much pressure can bonds sustain without breaking? That question points right back to the nature of the community though. The "gypsie" community formed between migrant workers is created and sustained through hardship, suffering, and adventure. We see that echoed at the end of the film as Linda walks off with her friend down the tracks. She doesn't really know the girl but she is close to her through a shared sense of desire for the world. One of the weakest communities in the film is between the four people at the farm. That one was built of physical attraction and perhaps curiosity. There was nothing there before Abby magically caught the eye of the Farmer. The relationship between the farmer and Abby is so brittle that is deteriorates almost instantaneously when doubt and jealousy are thrown into the mix.
ReplyDeleteIn the past few movies the community was the backbone and the structure that allows the story to unfold the way it does. In Days of Heaven, however, there was a distinct lack of a community. From one perspective, the group that got off the train was a community because they worked together and lived together, however, the group never seemed to be together as a community. They were individuals in a community, not a community of individuals. They never received any letters from friends or anything similar to that. This works well for the film because when Bill, Abby and Linda stay while their coworkers continue on the train, the disconnectedness allows the three to come together even more, causing the conflict when Abby makes a connection with the Farmer. There is no community to help out by providing support or a voice of reason for the “family”.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the movie, the town they live in has just as much of a lack of togetherness. No connections seem to have formed, allowing Abby to jump on the train at the end and leave for a new place.
I think this movie is called Days of Heaven because when they where taken by that rich farmer for them it seemed like they where in Heaven. The little girl said when she was like all i do is sit around and tells jokes all day. The she was like the rich people have it figured out. While they where living with the father they had no worries. It was isolated they could do whatever they wanted to do. But as soon as the farmer found out they where scamming him their days in Heaven turned into Hell. Ever since he killed the farmer and they had to go on the run everything went downhill. So i guess the movie was called Days of Heaven because it was trying to tell us that everything doesn't last forever, and true happiness has to be obtained through pure actions not manipulative behavior.
DeleteIn Days of Heaven, community definitely plays a large role. I noticed that a sense of community in this film is the root of each character’s personality. Who they associate themselves with, how they are divided between other groups, and how they rank socially. For example, the workers all originally associate themselves with where they’re from. Once they arrive at the farm though, they quickly identify with their associates, the poor people. The farmers ultimately become their new sense of community and the rich farmers who boss them around become the superior group. They are divided socially and economically. Another example is how Abby goes from being with Bill to being with the farmer. Once the dramatic switch happens, her sense of community shifts. The main thing driving her new mentality has got to be the wealth and the good life. I do not blame her, however, once she and the farmer get married she becomes done with share cropping and Bill.
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