Makes for classic, troubling yet fascinating cinema.
Badlands (1973)
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:38
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.7/10
Consensus: Gorgeous and troubling, with outstanding performances from Sheen and Spacek. Terrence Malicks masterful debut.
Synopsis: Terrence Malick's startlingly accomplished debut feature was inspired by the Charles Starkweather and Caril-Ann Fugate murders of the late-1950s. Martin Sheen plays Kit, a 25-year-old garbageman... Terrence Malick's startlingly accomplished debut feature was inspired by the Charles Starkweather and Caril-Ann Fugate murders of the late-1950s. Martin Sheen plays Kit, a 25-year-old garbageman who walks with a James Dean swagger. When he first meets the innocent 15-year-old Holly (Sissy Spacek), he falls head over heels in love with her. Her father (Warren Oates), an overprotective widower, will not allow the relationship to blossom, even after Kit informs him of his decent intentions. This refusal sparks Kit into action, triggering a brutal killing spree across the Midwest. All the while, Holly is there by Kit's side, to witness the senseless crimes and ponder her uncertain future. BADLANDS is told from the point-of-view of the naive Holly, whose childish musings make the cold, detached killings seem all the more shocking. Malick's truly distinctive style, which combines lush photography and dreamy voiceover with bleak subject matter, has made him one of the world's most revered directors. His influence can be seen in works as wide-ranging as Quentin Tarantino's TRUE ROMANCE and David Gordon Green's GEORGE WASHINGTON. If there is such a thing as a perfect movie, BADLANDS certainly qualifies. [More]
Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri
Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri, Alan Vint
Director: Terrence Malick
Director: Terrence Malick
Screenwriter: Terrence Malick
Producer: Terrence Malick
Composer: George Tipton, James Taylor
Reviews for Badlands
The superb performances from Sheen and Spacek are as memorable as Malick’s vision of something akin to hell.
The unique, lilting music would subsequently crop up in True Romance, though Tarantino’s generation has yet to dethrone Badlands as the most haunting of all couple-on-the-run movies.
An unmissable reissue for Terrence Malick's gorgeous and troubling debut.
Terrence Malick’s thriller Badlands (1973), is rightly revered as one of the most astonishing debuts in cinema. Its reissue is a wonderful chance to discover why.
This first, magnificent, outpouring of the sporadic genius of cinema’s equivalent to JD Salinger, Terrence Malick, still seems terrifically modern.
Achingly evocative of a time when Hollywood had the courage to invest in complex and morally ambiguous films and an indisputable masterpiece of American cinema.
Written, produced and directed by Terrence Malick, pic is his first feature and it's an impressive debut.
Terrence Malick introduced his odd yet highly compelling filmmaking style in this 1973 feature.
Bonnie and Clyde without the Freud, but with a darker, more incomprehensible underbelly.
This first, magnificent, outpouring of the sporadic genius of cinema’s equivalent to JD Salinger, Terrence Malick, still seems terrifically modern.
Like Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands could be seen as a poetic ballad or folktale, but unlike that film, it doesn't romanticize its protags, instead using distancing devices such as Sissy Spacek's affectless narration.
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