Badlands (1973)
Directed by Terrence Malick

Film Review

In that all too brief period in the 1970s, when the auteur flourished and brought an exciting new impetus to American cinema, there was a surge of new talent comparable only with the French New Wave of the previous decade.  Among the fresh crop of individualistic filmmakers to arrive at this momentous time was thirty-year-old Terrence Malick, who received instant acclaim with his remarkable debut feature Badlands.  A provocative mix of road movie and juvenile romance, the film was inspired by the real-life story of Charles Starkweather, a teenager who went on a mad killing spree with his 13-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate in 1957.  Rather than portray his gun-toting killer as we might expect, as a mad, habitually aggressive psychopath, Malick makes him out to be a sympathetic outsider, someone who, with his striking James Dean looks and mannerisms, we cannot help identifying with.

Presented from the perspective of its 15-year-old heroine, Holly, Badlands has the alluring character of a children's fairytale.  Both protagonists, Kit and Holly, are innocents who are scarcely aware of the gravity of their crimes.  They are unable to engage with either their victims or the world around them, and their only reality is the idyll that they share together, an unsullied teen romance that is played out against a landscape of extraordinary natural beauty.  The monstrous nature of Kit's random acts of violence momentarily shocks us but it does not diminish our sympathy for him - his star-like charisma and individuality have an intoxicating effect on the spectator, a chilling reminder, perhaps, of the lure of the celebrity to which our present era is particularly prone.

It is hard to believe that Badlands is Malick's first film, even harder to believe that it was made on a shoestring budget.  Strong central performances from Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek (both at the start of their impressive film careers), coupled with Malick's trademark use of stunning natural locations, make this a distinctive piece of cinema that has echoes of the legendary American westerns of the past whilst prefiguring the great road movies that were to come.  The influence of Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967) is easily recognised, as are the recurring references to James Dean's films Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956), and yet Malick still manages to forge his own identity and deliver a film that is quite unlike any other that has gone before.

The intense lyricism contained in the stark images is heightened by a soundtrack that takes in an eccentric diversity of themes, which includes some popular songs of the 1950s, extracts from work by Carl Orff and Erik Satie, and a specially composed piece by George Tipton, which has been endlessly imitated since.   Many subsequent filmmakers have taken their inspiration from Badlands, but few have succeeded in matching its effortless cinematic brilliance and unsettlingly ironic poetry.  This is a film that admits various interpretations, from a dark commentary on the futility of dreams to an acknowledgement of the moral bankruptcy of western society in the wake of the consumer revolution, but it is also one that stands on its own artistic merits, a seductive piece of cinematic art that resonates with truth and beauty.

Film Synopsis

Some time in the 1950s...  In a small South Dakota town, 15-year-old Holly lives a dull but contented life with her father, a sign painter.  One day, she meets Kit, a handsome young man, ten years her senior, who resembles James Dean.  Kit has just lost his job as a garbage collector and is unable to find work, so he whiles away his time in the company of Holly, both taking care to keep their budding romance from Holly's father.  When Kit enters Holly's house to take her away with him he has a frosty encounter with her father, which ends with him shooting the unforgiving painter dead.  Having set fire to the house, Kit and Holly take to the road and embark on a long drive across open country, both knowing that it is only a matter of time before the authorities start chasing after them...