What’s It About?
After a factory worker in Chicago kills his boss, he flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and sister. There, they enact a plan to trick a wealthy dying farmer into leaving them his fortune.
Why Should You Watch This Movie… In The Bath?
Lately, all I want to eat is salmon with brown rice and a cucumber and radish salad. It’s literally the only meal I crave.
This has replaced my previous favorite food: an oversized Italian sub.
At some point, my body decided “We need something healthier and more fulfilling.” Maybe it’s some biological safety mechanism trying to preemptively rescue me from sandwich-induced heart failure. Or maybe I just finally had so many Italian subs that my body was just ready to move on.
Terrence Malick movies are the cinematic equivalent of that salmon bowl. The first time I saw one, when I was much younger, I couldn’t quite abide the reflective pacing. “All these shots of nature! Let’s get a move on!” My cinematic diet was a pepperoni pizza and this man was asking me to admire salmon with brown rice.
But lately, that’s all I want. I want to watch movies that will ask more of me and in turn leave me feeling better. That might feel like a weird vibe for a bath - where the goal is often to disconnect and to free yourself of worries. But I’d also argue that it’s an opportunity to give something undivided attention and there’s meditative value in that too.
Days of Heaven should probably be watched on the biggest screen you have. Its cinematography insists on that. But, if you watch it in the bath instead, you’re still going to find a complex and moving story of love, wealth, the brutality of capitalist systems, the inescapability of circumstance, and the beauty of nature. And that’s a pretty good bath vibe for me.
How Can I Watch It?
Available on The Criterion Channel or Rent