Badlands (1973)
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Crime
wmcclain — 2 years ago(May 12, 2023 11:41 AM)
Badlands (1973)
, written, produced and directed by Terrence Malick.
Cast your mind back to adolescence. Little bit crazy, were you? Afraid you might launch off into some extreme bad behavior? But you were in love, awkward but pure. Until it ended.
That's the story of Kit and Holly, if you throw in the extra craziness that lets them casually murder a whole string of family, friends and strangers, and then camp out in the woods in a survivalist compound that combines
Gilligan's Island
with
Lost
.
Even her father (the great Warren Oates) is crazy: he shoots her dog to punish her!
Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are young, fresh and convincing. Just guessing, but I suspect the director did not rely on storyboards: there seem to be many scenes found during the shoot, maybe bits of improvisation.
Spacek had only a brief ingenue period before developing her exotic look, but she is improbably cute in little white shorts here.
After first sex:
Holly
: Did it go the way it's supposed to?
Kit
: Yeah.
Holly
: Is that all there is to it?
Kit
: Yep.
Holly
: Gosh, what was everybody talkin' about?
Kit
: Don't ask me.
Holly
: Well, I'm glad it's over. For a while I was afraid I might die before it happened. Had a wreck or some deal like that.
I love her dim, romantically overblown diary narration.
Ironic twist: when finally captured, Kit and the police are similar people. They like each other in the end.
The score, using bits of Carl Orff, is initially childlike, becoming darker and psychotic as the story changes but the characters don't.
Malick's first film, begun when he was a student. The story is suggested by the history of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate in 1958. Oliver Stone's
Natural Born Killers
is an absurd treatment of the same material, much less watchable than
Badlands
.
Available on Blu-ray from Criterion. Excellent natural color.
Capsule film reviews:
Strange Picture Scroll -
MissMargoChanning — 2 years ago(May 12, 2023 02:24 PM)
This was such a good movie. I have it. I haven't watched it in quite a while. I believe I'll watch it sometime over the weekend.
️
Have you ever seen the 1993 TV movie, Murder in the Heartland?
It's a fairly good depiction of the Starkweather/Fugate case. Not completely accurate.
Tim Roth plays Starkweather! You can watch it on YouTube.
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night! -
unex — 2 years ago(May 13, 2023 01:42 PM)
The score, using bits of Carl Orff, is initially childlike, becoming darker and psychotic as the story changes but the characters don't.
Malick's first film, begun when he was a student. The story is suggested by the history of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate in 1958. Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers is an absurd treatment of the same material, much less watchable than Badlands.
Quentin Tarantino wrote Natural Born Killers, obviously inspired by Badlands, but I think True Romance, also written by Tarantino, was another riff on it. It doesn't follow the story as closely as Natural Born Killers but it has two lovers on the run and he probably didn't choose the soundtrack but it also makes heavy use of Gassenhauer.