Days of Heaven - Jen

The most striking part of Days of Heaven to me was, unsurprisingly, the vividly beautiful colors. As we've discussed, the movie was filmed during the "golden hour" - also called the "magic hour," which I completely understand.

The first and last scenes, however, are a bit different. The first is more...dusty. It's sort of sepia at times, and it's really just not as beautiful as the scenes shot amidst the open fields and beautiful scenery. No, the first scene conveys an image of being "trapped."

But once the characters get to the farmer's place, things changed. The colors are different. The "golden hour" setting, filmed during the last hour of sunlight, seems to represent the idea of being in limbo. Linda, her brother, and her brother's girlfriend aren't really free, although they hope to get to that point. Time is hard to follow in the middle of the film, which shows that they were in the middle of a cycle that doesn't seem to end. I feel that this connects to the farmer's health. He is supposed to be getting worse, but we learn that his health does not fail - but it also doesn't improve. Like the rest of the characters, the farmer is also stuck in limbo.

And yet things do change. The farmer is murdered. Linda's brother gets killed. Linda is put into a school, but then she leaves and runs off with a friend. And this last scene, where Linda leaves, it set at a totally different time during the day (early morning - Linda first leaves her school before the sun rises).

Thus the film's use of the "golden hour," especially when compared to when the "golden hour" isn't present, shows the idea of time feeling stagnant and being caught in limbo.