1973

June 8, 2003
Encore
USA
English
95 minutes

In 1959 a lot of people were killing time. Kit and Holly were killing people -- BADLANDS.

A teenage girl and a young garbage collector wander across America leaving a trail of murder behind them.

Martin Sheen. Sissey Spacek. Directed by Terrence Malick.

This is one of those films they teach in film school. It couldn't possibly live up to that kind of hype. I was a huge fan of THE THIN RED LINE which Malick put out just in time to be trounced at the box office by SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, even though Malick's is the better of the two. Sheen is impossibly young and James Deanish as he wears boots and a denim jacket, even while collecting garbage. It's nice to see that he puts on his tailored suit jacket on THE WEST WING exactly like he puts on his dimestore denim in this film. Spacek does her best Lolita impression in white short-shorts. Remember the Springsteen lyrics: "I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton/Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died." She is attracted to his rebel looks and very good manners. He 'could have any girl he wants in this town'. He sees something innocent in her 15-year-old soul that provides hope even though he can't keep a job and the town thinks he's a bad seed. They make a unique couple.

Her voiceovers spell out the fickleness of a teenage girl and the lofty romantic notions of love. "We fell deeper and deeper into love". "After awhile I thought of shoving him into the river". The killing starts sort of accidentally with no big musical crescendo or haunting blood. It is so matter-of-fact that it seems inevitable that it will continue. She is not bothered nearly enough and joins him on the lam.

I think if I had seen it when it first came out I would be singing its praises more loudly. It is still good and pre-dates a lot of the crime-spree-for-fame's-sake that we see all the time now in films such as NATURAL BORN KILLERS and BANDITS.

The photography by a team of three cinematographers is very very good. The plains are shown golden and beautiful, but also desolate and dry.

Impressive hyper performance by Sheen and sedated one by Spacek.

**** Halliwells