Badlands

Badlands

1974 PG 1h 34m Criterion Collection

It's the late 1950s. Mid-twenty-something Kit is a restless and unfocused young man with a James Dean vibe and swagger which he has heard mentioned about him more than once. Fifteen year old Holly has a somewhat cold relationship with her sign painter father, if only because she is the primary reminder of his wife, who died of pneumonia when Holly was a child. The two meet when Holly and her father move from Texas to the small town where Kit lives, Fort Dupree, South Dakota. They slowly fall in love, something about which she cannot tell her father because of their age difference and Kit coming from the wrong side of the tracks. When he tries to take Holly away with him, Kit, on an impulse, shoots her father dead. After letting the initial emotions of the situation settle down, Holly decides voluntarily to go with Kit, they trying to make it look like they committed suicide in a house fire. But they soon learn that their plan did not work, there being a bounty on their heads. As such, Kit continues his murderous ways in order to protect the life he wants to eke out with Holly. She, on the other hand, wants to support Kit, especially as he begins to feel more and more trapped, but she may only be able to endure what looks increasingly to be a battle they cannot win as a couple. Through it all, they openly and privately muse about their philosophies on their life considering their current circumstance.

Director
Terrence Malick
Starring
Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri, Alan Vint
Genre
Action, Crime, Drama
My Rating
★★★★½ 9.0 / 10
Format & Location
Format: Blu-ray
Location: Shelf
Date Added
September 23, 2023

Review

You can always expect beautiful shots and settings with Malick, and even this early film of his gets that incredibly right. The acting was great (Sissy Spacek's second role), and the story was well-told. I found this much more understandable than I've found more recent Malick films.

Some things that stood out:

- The voiceover. It works really well here. It moves the story forward while we look at the beauty Malick discovered in the area of the story
- How young Sissy Spacek looked. She was 15 in real life, and depicting that as well as they did (incredible acting as well) helps me get a feel for how depraved this was
- The quality of the storytelling. As mentioned above, I went in figuring this would be decent but maybe a bit more than I was ready for. It was not that. The story was interesting and engaging.