In 1959 a lot of people were killing time. Kit and Holly were killing people.
Features: DVD, Pan and Scan (TV Format), Widescreen, French, Subtitled
In 1959, Kit (Sheen), who has killed several people, and his new girlfriend Holly (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, 1998's The Thin Red Line) was inspired by a real-life 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.
"Among the great American crime movies, Badlands stands alone." Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
"So spare and poetic it chills you to the bone." Los Angeles Times
Editor's Note
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.
Plot Summary
Director Terrence Malick's debut is based on the Charles Starkweather murder spree of the 1950s. A South Dakota garbage collector woos a high school naif away from her father--and kills him--and the two embark on a statewide killing binge. BADLANDS is a slice of demented Americana, made all the more disturbing by Malick's understated direction and Sheen's over-the-top James Dean posturing.
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