--- title: "Days of Heaven: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/days-of-heaven/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/days-of-heaven" critics_score: 88 critics_reviews: 15 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Days of Heaven (1978): what the critics said Critics' score 88 from 15 reviews: 14 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics respond warmly to Days of Heaven, with praise concentrated on its natural light, wheat-field landscapes and the way images and sound carry the romantic drama. Nestor Almendros’s cinematography and Morricone’s score receive repeated attention. Linda Manz’s deadpan voice-over is another point of agreement, valued for bringing loss, resilience and an unusual perspective to the adults’ tangled relationships. The reviews largely find emotional force in Malick’s unhurried observation of people and nature. The disagreement concerns how much those images compensate for sparse storytelling and muted characterisation. Den of Geek admires the painterly photography but finds the narrative elliptical and the characters wooden, locating most of the feeling in the narration and music. That is the sole negative assessment among fourteen positive reviews, making the numerical spread wide but the dissent isolated. Most critics treat the indirect storytelling as a strength rather than an obstacle. ## Little White Lies — Sophie Brown Rating 5/5/5. 1 September 2011. The critic hails the restored classic for its mesmerizing cinematography capturing magic hour and natural beauty, along with Morricone's majestic score. It notes Malick's sensitive observation of calm and chaos in human lives and the perilous course of the tangled relationships in the wheat fields. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/days-heaven-1978) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 4/4. 7 December 1997. The critic praises the film's painterly beauty, evocative Morricone score and magic-hour cinematography as one of the most beautiful ever made. He singles out the child's flat, resigned voice-over narration for conveying loss and resilience amid the muted adult passions of the love triangle. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-days-of-heaven-1978) ## The Times — Kevin Maher Rating ★★★★★. 2 February 2024. This glorious rescue job after a chaotic production is a masterpiece of magic-hour lighting and focused storytelling about lovers hoodwinking a farmer. The locusts scene and overall visual beauty stand out as knockout achievements. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/days-of-heaven-1978-review-malicks-magic-hour-masterpiece-2b30sthsq) ## Time Out — David Jenkins Rating 5/5. 30 August 2011. The critic celebrates the film's sublime sensuous poetry and biblical profundity in its depiction of a furtive love blooming momentarily in a glowing golden paradise in the Texas Panhandle before commerce and violence intervene. It calls the film one of the most beautiful ever made, visually and thematically. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/days-of-heaven-1) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. The restored print reveals the film as one of the most ravishing ever made, with sublime, clearer light and colour that enhances its Biblical narrative of a love triangle and pastoral idyll ending in ruin, delivered through images, music and an off-kilter voiceover. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/days-of-heaven-review-7426513.html) ## Sight and Sound — Tom Milne Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 2 September 2011. The critic praises Malick's poetic vision of a fleeting utopia among four souls in the pre-WWI Texan wheatfields, distilling a vision of paradise lost. It highlights the film's exploration of mankind's interaction with the earth and its self-destructive follies amid industrial change and human frailty. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/reviews/releases/days-of-heaven.php) ## Slant Magazine — Nick Schager Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 14 December 2023. The critic calls it the greatest film ever made and a masterpiece of pure cinema that conveys everything through visual and sonic means rather than conventional narrative. They single out Nestor Almendros's Oscar-winning cinematography, the use of natural light and magic-hour shots, and the film's ability to overwhelm the senses. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/days-of-heaven-4k-uhd-blu-ray-review-terrence-malick/) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 February 2024. Malick’s 1978 film is a richly achieved tragic romance and slo-mo melodrama that established his signature style of landscape reverence, unhurried tempo and golden-hour lighting. The re-release highlights its eventful drama, compositional mood shifts and visual poetry drawn from classic American sources. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/feb/01/days-of-heaven-review-malicks-early-masterwork-heralds-a-rarefied-visionary) ## Vulture — David Edelstein Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 8 December 2023. The critic hails the film as one of the greatest and most ravishing ever made for its capture of magic-hour visuals and themes of ephemerality and impermanence. They praise the innovative voice-over narration by Linda Manz and the way images, music, and offbeat narration create a new point of view. [Read the review](https://www.vulture.com/article/film-review-terrence-malicks-days-of-heaven-restored-in-4k.html) ## Empire — Ian Nathan Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 18 April 2006. The critic praises Malick's second film as a visual poem of furtive gestures and a love triangle set in wheat fields, where the director's oblique approach and focus on nature's power create an epic yet concise work of simple majesty that is felt rather than stated. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/days-heaven-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Dennis Lim Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 21 October 2007. The critic calls the film a well-deserved masterpiece of beauty and craft, a turn-of-the-century romantic tragedy in nature-reverie form. He singles out the haunting Morricone score, Almendros cinematography and Manz's unique deadpan voice-over narration as creating a powerful, Greek-tragic intensity and new cinematic language. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-21-ca-secondlook21-story.html) ## The New York Times Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 26 March 1999. The review highlights the rapturously beautiful golden fields and magic-hour light of the 1978 film during its revival. It notes the film's eccentric daring and original style, praising the voice-over narration and visual sophistication while observing how hindsight reveals thematic links to Malick's later work. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/26/movies/critic-s-choice-film-but-first-there-was-heaven.html) ## Paste Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 September 2024. The critic celebrates the film as ravishing and inexplicably amazing, singling out its golden-hour cinematography and the elemental forces (like locusts and fire) that overpower human dramas. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/terrence-malick/the-weekend-watch-days-of-heaven) ## Collider — Liam Gaughan Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 24 November 2023. The critic views Days of Heaven as a mature, emotionally resonant work that marks a confident shift for Malick, praising its simple yet impactful romantic storyline and the way naturalistic environments heighten the central relationships. [Read the review](https://collider.com/terrence-malick-days-of-heaven/) ## Den of Geek — Michael Leader Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 1 September 2011. The critic praises the film's breathtaking, painterly cinematography and restoration but finds the narrative elliptical and characters wooden, with emotional weight coming mostly from the voiceover and score. It is seen as a dazzling yet dreary New Hollywood footnote that inspires divided reactions. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/looking-back-at-days-of-heaven/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/days-of-heaven.md