The film seems twice as long as its hour and a half running time, because each scene is so simple yet full. It's like a minimal painting.

Writer-director Terrence Malick has given us a montage of stunningly beautiful scenes that can only be labeled the work of an artist.

Days of Heaven is too self-consciously beautiful to support its narrative framework. Intentionally or not, the wonders and horrors of nature dwarf the characters to such an extent that they are rendered insignificant and often boring by contrast.

If you believe in film as visual art, an art form in which the visual element is primary, then this is, indeed, a work of art, perhaps the most beautiful movie ever made.