Jacob Brackman talks about Malick's "Days of Heaven"

[Chradnev]

The Chinese whispers effect: story goes from 'Brackman thought up the structure and voice over of Days of Heaven!' to 'Yeah, I thought that since the dialogue wasn't working we'd need heavy voice over, and Terry agreed.'

Around the time they realised the dialogue wasn't working, Malick started shooting lots of insert shots of a silent Sam Shepard (his acting was worst) standing against immense backgrounds. Malick and cinematographer Nestor Almendros called this "shooting another Sam".

[touchogrey]

What exactly does he mean by we need to go "Tolstoy" instead of "Dostoevsky" ? Is that in reference to the heavy psychological stuff in Dost.'s work as opposed to Tolstoy's more vivid and broad strokes?

[WC3POchannel10A]

He talks of doing second unit work and shooting nature scenes. I think this is the Tolstoy reference in that the detail that Tolstoy will give you in a story. Detail that paints the picture of where the story takes place, fine detail. No wonder I liked the film so much. I am a Tolstoy fan. Very interesting information about one of my favorite films of all-time. I wonder if there is more to this interview about DofH.

[58raz]

I Haven't got Time For the Pain.

[TheStranger2O46]

great post.  thank you

[sebdale]

fascinating