Weekend Rental: Days of Heaven

This week actor Richard Gere got into hot water not because of his involvement with the Tibetan cause, but instead he smacked a couple of big ones on some actress (Shilpa Shetty) during an Aids awareness rally in New Delhi. The 57-year-old actor might not want to come back to India any time soon as a judge issued arrest warrants for the public “vulgarity”. It got me thinking – what’s my favorite Gere film? The answer is my weekend rental suggestion.  

Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven a 1978 film by Paramount Pictures is described by the NYTimes as a turbulent, swarming story of triangular love and migrant farm workers in the early 20th century, this film sweeps across the American heartland in telling the story of a drifter (Gere), his sister (Manz), the woman he loves (Adams) and the farmer (Shepard) who covets her, all unfolding against backgrounds that are as intoxicated by the beauty of nature as aware of its destructiveness. The film was chosen as one of The New York Times 10 best films of its year and won an Academy Award for its cinematography, by Nestor Almendros.