Grady Pusateri

**average** None of this would have happened if Richard Gere's character didn't have an incest kink. *Days of Heaven* is an all-too-common case (in my opinion) of a film that has little to no substance backing up its outward appearance. Kind of like a 10/10 bombshell that unfortunately has a valley accent and an IQ of 78. As usual, I'll start with the bad, which is the aforementioned plot. The film appears to be something of a flex in cinematography and blocking, with some semblance of a storyline kind of holding all those shots together or at least moving them along. I understand that Mallick stans might come at me for this, but I'm sorry that at this point in my film-watching journey I'm failing to see the nuance in a film like this, other than some obvious symbolism here and there. I didn't expect to be highly entertained with crazy action sequences and shit, but I also didn't expect to wonder when the hell something actually interested was going to happen. Also, it seems that they put all their eggs into one basket on the cinematography, because the sound design in this film is honestly pretty horrendous. On the bright side, the cinematography does in fact walk the walk. This is easily one of the greatest looking films that I have ever seen, if not in all of cinema, and for it to be only Mallick's 2nd film is nothing short of incredible. Similarly to Kurosawa's *Sanjuro*, this is a film that I think is great to study if you want to learn good compositional and (especially) lighting techniques, because the plot is somewhat negligible. Also amazing is the production design, with the dirty, industrial aesthetic of the early 20th century oozing into every shot involving human beings (with a touch of southern gothic). All in all, pretty great looking film with not a lot beneath that. I might come back in the far future if someone begs me to, or if something clicks, but for now I can't say it was for me.

**Good** I can’t think of a movie who’s production design embodies the summer aesthetic as well as this movie does.

**Average** In the words of Monty Python, GET ON WITH IT

**Good** Okay, but what the fuck did he see in the burn ward???