Badlands (Criterion Collection)

30 YearsLater...Still Chilling....
This review refers to the Warner Bros DVD edition of "Badlands"...

Thirty years ago, young filmakers Terrance Malick(director) and Tak Fujimoto(cinematographer)gave us an advanced preview of their extraordinary talents. And not only that, but the young stars of this film, Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek prove their acting expertise as well.

Holly(Spacek), is a naive young girl who becomes enamored by the charismatic but brooding Kit(Sheen). After she is stunned by the brutal murder of her father by the man she loves, she goes on the run with him, and gets caught up in his dark world as he continues on his murder spree.

This chilling story was inspired by actual events that occurred in 1958 and Spacek(who also captivatingly narrates), and Sheen capture these troubled youths with perfection and will draw you into every word. Warren Oates turns in a terrific performance as usual, as Holly's father, and of course is not in it nearly long enough. Malick and Fujimoto subtly and artfully...

Before the Fall
Kit and Holly are presented in this story by Terrence Malick as total innocents, living in a prelapsarian state, completely unaware of right and wrong, good and evil, and ignorant of guilt or sin. They have minimal conception of the consequences of their actions; in effect, they appear almost totally to lack imagination or foresight, and can barely empathise with each other, let alone other people. Things just happen, as Holly sees it. Kit doesn't feel hostility to the people he kills: they are merely in his way. There is no remorse. He is only marginally conscious that the structured world outside his own will eventually catch up with him. These kids are like Adam and Eve, with a limited knowledge of what is forbidden, but no real knowledge of the meaning of life and death. Holly throws out her sick catfish, showing no feeling. Her dog is shot as a punishment by her father, indicating he, too, is careless of death or pain. Kit stands on a dead cow, as though puzzled by its absence...

A COMPLEX TALE OF EVIL...
This is an amazing directorial debut, as the film works on so many fronts. It is both a love story and a crime drama, with sneak peaks at what makes the two main protagonists tick. It remains for the audience to decide who is the more chilling and disturbed of the two characters, twenty five year old Kit (Martin Sheen) or fifteen year old Holly (Sissy Spacek).

This is a film in which two unlikely characters become lovers. Kit, a James Dean-like loser espies the fresh-faced Holly twirling her baton one day and is smitten. He approaches her and, despite her initial reluctance, she begins to see him against her protective father's wishes. Kit is ten years older than Holly, a high school drop out from the wrong side of the tracks, who is unable to maintain a job and appears to have a limited future. He falls in love with Holly and wants her to be his exclusively. Eventually, they become lovers.

Holly, a loner who has been raised by her father since her mother died many years ago,...

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