Badlands (1973) (Repackaged)

Mehr lesen

Badlands announced the arrival of a major talent: Terrence Malick. His impressionistic take on the notorious Charles Starkweather killing spree of the late 1950s uses a serial-killer narrative as a springboard for an oblique teenage romance, lovingly and idiosyncratically enacted by Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The film introduced many of the elements that would earn Malick his passionate following: the enigmatic approach to narrative and character, the unusual use of voice-over, the juxtaposition of human violence with natural beauty, the poetic investigation of American dreams and nightmares. This debut has spawned countless imitations, but none have equalled its strange sublimity.

in 1959, kit (martin sheen), who has killed several people, and his new girlfriend holly (sissy spacek), who watched him do it, are adrift in a double fantasy of crime and punishment across south dakota and montana. they're playing make-believe but the bullets and bloodshed are very real.
the first of writer/director terrence malick's three landmark films (1978's days of heaven and 1998's the thin red line are the others) was inspired by a reallife 1958 midwestern killing spree. malick imaginatively transforms their story into a provocative study of people alienated from everyday life - but fascinating to us. beautifully shot and memorably acted, badlands is a spellbinding journey.