Much has been made of Terrance Malicks directorial debut Badlands (1973) over the years, and I am not going to claim to have anything new to bring to the table but it will do me good to try and articulate just how I felt about this masterpiece. Yes masterpiece, you can check this blog to see if that word has been used yet and you won't find it. So with that set up you have an idea of where this review is going.
What is our purpose on earth?Are we only as valuable as we are in our own minds or in the minds of others? Celebrity, fame, human life, what are they worth? These are some of the questions that Badlands deals with. The movie surrounds Kit a garbage worker who looks like James Dean and Holly a 15 year old girl who Kit takes a liking too after he sees her whirling a baton in the front yard. This innocent meeting starts our story and ends after a half dozen murders. Apparently the script was based on the true story of a young couple who killed 12 people in the South Dakota area in 1958, but the based on a true story aspect of this film is hardly relevant. This is its own tale.
There is nothing about Kit that is particularly charming or likable. His dialogue is sparse and often very humorous. Many times he points out the obvious yet acts like he is a philosopher. He has no rhyme, reason or purpose behind any of his acts, other than to leave a mark on this world. At one point early in the film he suggests that he and Holly smash there hands with a rock so that they never forget that moment. Holly says that would hurt, "thats the point stupid" he replies.
Kit never seems like a killer, despite being "the most trigger happy person I've ever known" according to Holly. When he does kill he is just doing, the movie is a bystander just watching. Badlands is the perfect example of filmmaking in the raw. Malick trusts his story and just presents it as is. Yes there are beautiful shots of nature and sunrises, all marks of a director and his future work, but they don't seem contrived or forced on us because there is nothing else to show, they are the everlasting juxtaposition to Kit and Holly's fleeting moment on earth.
The performances by Sheen and Spacek deserve to be ranked with that of De Niro and Foster in Taxi Driver, or even higher. Despite Sheens world renowned fame he is an underrated actor, he is not mentioned with the Hoffmans, De Niros or the 70's, yet between Badlands and Apocalypse Now you are looking at the equivalent of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull performance wise.
It must also be mentioned that the methodic carnival like score in Badlands is one of my favorite of all time. It is a masterful piece of music that I could listen to all day mixed with Spacek's perfect narration. Also it must be noted that Malick uses pop music perfectly in this film and does not get the credit he deserves for doing this.
Badlands is a film that is progressive even if it were released today. It is the Pulp Fiction of the seventies, it has the dialogue, direction and entertaining yet morally corrupt characters that audiences were not used to. Maybe that word Masterpiece is not enough, Malick made a benchmark film that has stood the test of time, and he deserves to be my first five star review.
*****
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