I have now seen all of Terrence Malick’s movies… that is until “The Tree of Life” comes out. But having seen his first film last, “Badlands,” it is interesting to see how Malick has grown as a director over time.
The film recreates the story of mass murderer Charles Starkweather and his young girlfriend Carill Ann Fugate, but in the movie they are Kit (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek). These two young kids, he an out-of-work 25-year-old and she a 15-year-old student, are lonely people that simply find each other and discover themselves attached. Their love is hardly a strong connection, and although he looks like James Dean, appearances aren’t really involved either.
After Kit kills Holly’s father, the two are in it together, killing any witnesses on their run away to the badlands of Montana. The film is not really a gangster movie or a psychological portrait of a killer. Malick’s film is merely a twisted Americana romance.
That said, “Badlands” is not particularly deep, but it conveys a beautiful story, as illustrated through Malick’s always striking visuals, here most prominent in the open dead fields of the Northern American badlands. The dialogue is still told through Malick’s patented internal narration, but it’s rightly not as poetic as some of his later films. Here, Holly speaks in casual Southern English, as does a very young Martin Sheen in an excellent performance.
This was one of the first big movie roles for both Sheen and Spacek, and they have excellent screen presence even if their characters are not meant to have a glowing chemistry.
This is a beautiful and truly American film that captures a slice of life from an unlikely source and marks the beginning of a long and legendary career from Terrence Malick.
1 thought on “Rapid Response: Badlands”