每每观影结束，个人习惯是看片名与内容一致或相关不？好比对于这部，就感到困惑。
如果是说男女主又或只是女主以及小女孩在农场停留的那段日子，为何不好好珍惜？经男主之口，女主逐渐爱上了农场主。所以，观者如我，会把“天堂之日”的丧失归咎于男主为一己私欲。如果爱她，就放手，让她不用跟着受颠簸流离之苦。所以，比之理查基尔塑造的众多角色，如前段日子重温过的《风月俏佳人》，我很不喜欢这部中背负两条命案的家伙，很高兴他为此付出了代价。
从片中提到的威尔逊总统及结尾女主跳上开赴欧洲战场的火车，大致可以把影片讲述时间限定在20世纪第二个十年。难道麦田收割还在沿用片子展示的那种方式么？机械化程度远没有达到想象中的高度。
记不起是读高中还是初中那会，英语课本中有一篇课文是说盐湖城的蝗灾的。一直想象发生时会是怎样一副画面，影片呈现了出来。当然，还有麦田大火，想到基努李维斯主演的《云中漫步》中纳帕河谷一处葡萄园的夜晚大火。
不喜欢影片讲述的故事。不过，对镜头下的农场的一切都大爱，麦田里的野鸡（？），以及其它动物，农庄周围的地形，有山、有河，等等。
【幕后制作】：《天堂的日子》由长期在法国为特吕弗掌镜的摄影师阿尔曼德罗（Nestor Almendros）拍摄，影片以舒缓的格调、油画式的构图和色调，准确地捕捉了世纪初的美国田园风味。结尾农场主在捕杀蝗虫时为宣泄心中的情感而放火怒烧麦田的场景，更显示影片在摄影技术方面所作出的杰出的贡献。全片几乎全是外景，而且大多是在所谓“魔术时刻”——即每天在日出前、日落后各半小时左右，天空转为深蓝或红色，但仍可清楚照映出大地上所有景物的轮廓，看起来像是从天空架设灯光，再照到地面的效果，摄影界称之为“魔术时刻”——拍摄，颇收油画与剪影之功效。影片中那晚霞映照下空旷田野里的稻草人、沾满露水的麦穗、晨曦中麦田里劳作的农民、天空中南飞的雁群、乱风吹皱湖面泛起的阵阵涟漪，光与影美不胜收，俯拾皆是，《天堂的日子》成为每个研究电影摄影者必看的影片。
【P.S.】：The seagulls of Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City is a beautiful city in the west of North America, which was founded over a hundred years ago. At that time, a group of men, women and children arrived at a valley with high mountains all around it. They had traveled a long way. They had begun their journey far away in the east. After they had crossed the mountains, they found the valley. In the middle of it there was a salt lake. This was where their city now lies.
The land seemed good, and they decided to stay there. They built their homes, and made their farms, and planted their crops. The people had to work hard on their farms. If they did not grow enough food, they would have nothing to eat.
One day while they were working in the fields, some farmers saw something strange in the sky. “what is that?” asked one of them .
“Where?” asked another farmer, as he stopped to look.
“Over there ,”he answered.
They saw something coming towards them. It looked like a cloud, but it was too low in the sky. As they watched, it came nearer and nearer. Suddenly a shout went up: “Locusts! Millions of locusts!”
Every one stopped working, and looked at the sky. They were all frightened, because they knew what locusts could do. They had never seen so many of them before.
In no time the locusts came down and started eating their crops —the wheat, the vegetables, even the grass, and the leaves on the trees.
Everyone—men, women and children—tried to fight against the locusts. They tried everything , but while they were killing locusts in one place, millions more arrived in another.
What could they do?
Suddenly they heard a great noise. They looked up into the sky and saw another great cloud coming towards them. To their surprise, they saw not locusts, but seagulls. The farmers cried out, “They have come to eat what the locusts have left!”
But they found that the seagulls had come to eat, not their crops, but the locusts. Usually, the seagulls lived near the sea. But they had seen or smelt the locusts and had come to eat them. Now they were eating the locusts. In a short while they ate up millions of them. The farmers’ crops were saved!
The people were very thankful. They decided that from then on no one should ever kill a seagull . And today, if you go to Salt Lake City, you can see a monument with seagulls on top of it.
HD
