Dark Eyes In The Film Days Of Heaven

Dark eyes plagued by doubt and regret punctuate the expression of a figure protruding from the wheat fields. Those eyes tell a seemingly parabolic story of love bartered for wealth. Only in hindsight can the mind behind those glassy eyes comprehend the effects of a lack of emotional awareness, of the capitulation to immediate desire and impulsivity. Those eyes were Richard Gere’s in the film Days of Heaven. Director Terrence Malick’s oeuvre has often featured stoic protagonists in search of themselves, bleeding with introspection, used as props to examine Malick’s own feelings and to provide a mirror for the audience to do the same. Art should always be a conduit for exploration of the self. It serves as an aide to achieving lofty goals like those of the Jesuit Graduate at Graduation, one of the more striking of which is to be “more conscious of his or her feelings and freer and more authentic in expressing them and managing one’s impulsive drives.” A powerful assertion, the idea that conscious and authentic expression is

The category of Open to Growth requests emotional maturity and a willingness to expand one’s mind and feelings. Specifically within the subgoal, a common thread can be observed between the words feelings, expressing, and impulsive. As defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary, “feeling” is “an emotional state or reaction,” “expression” is “the act of making your thoughts, feelings, etc., known by speech, writing, or some other method,” and “impulsive” is “doing things or tending to do things suddenly and without careful thought.” The link between these three words is clear: feeling is raw material for either expression or impulse to mine. Poetry is the mode of expression Keats employed to channel his feelings, rather than actions motivated by