Days of Heaven - James Clarke

The scope of Days of Heaven is so expansive it would seem a lot larger than the story actually is. Though far more complicated than many traditional love stories, the setting is what sets it aside. The tangled love story is set on a beautiful landscape that becomes a profound allegory for harmony and chaos, love and hate, and good and evil. Its emotional impact, and sometimes lack thereof, is caused by the narrator, Bill's sister, who actually has a really terrible accent and diction.The opening titles provides sepia-toned period photos of turn-of-the-century city and rural life. The titles sequence ends with a photo of the narrator that has been sepia-toned to look like the other pictures.

The rest of the film does well to fit in with the time as well, with the setting, costumes, colors and characters. The allegories of time between life and death tie in perfectly with that of the harvest and of the constant use of dusk. These shots frame the abundant use of silhouette shots beautifully and add a great deal to the tragedy of the story. There is no clear antagonist to this story, and no clear protagonist either. Everyone uses everyone else and treats everyone else just as we as an audience would imagine they would. The downfall of the relationships and of Bill are as predictable as any other doomed love story we have seen in Hollywood. To be frank, the story wouldn't be believable if it didn't end the way it did. There is obviously no happy ending at the end of any character's story, even that of Bill's sister, the narrator, as she walks away at the end of the film. She looks back, at the tragedy of her young life so far, but there's nothing back there but ghosts and memories.