This 1978 movie is a singular tale of struggle and love, American style. Richard Gere plays Bill, a volatile steelworker who flees 1916 Chicago for the Texas Panhandle after a violent encounter with his boss. He brings his sister, Linda, (the excellent Linda Manz), as well as Abby (Brooke Adams), his girlfriend who poses as his other sister for the sake of propriety.
They begin working for a young farmer (Sam Shepard), a man in possession of a great fortune and a gloriously madcap Queen Anne mansion. He’s also in want of a wife, and quickly falls in love with Abby. Tension, deception, and tragedy mythically unfold.
Though it was panned upon its release, it is now regarded as a masterpiece, as well as one of the most beautiful films ever made. Indeed, director Terrence Malick and his cinematographers turn everything they observe—trains, blast furnaces, horses, storms, artificial light, oceanic wheatfields, human frailty—into resolute poetry. Acorn owns Days of Heaven, and it can be requested from SWAN.