Badlands

Year of Release:  1973

Director:  Terrence Malick

Screenplay:  Terrence Malick

Starring:  Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri

Running Time:  93 minutes

Genre:  Crime, drama

In the small town of Fort Dupree, South Dakota, in 1959, 15 year old Holly (Spacek) meets 25 year old Kit (Sheen), and falls for him despite the objections of her father (Oates).  When she tries to run away with Kit, her father confronts them, and Kit shoots him dead.  They start a strange, violent life on the run, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, as they try to keep ahead of the authorities.

This film is loosely based on the life and crimes of American spree killer Charles Starkweather who, along with 14 year old Caril Anne Fugate, murdered 11 people between December 1957 and January 1958.  It also marks the debut of writer/producer/director Terrence Malick, who has made his name with long, strange, and beautiful films which straddle the boundary between the mainstream and the experimental with varying degrees of success.  This film is much more accessible than much of Malick's later work, but there are a lot of hints as to what was to come.  The film opens with bleak images of the dead-end town and Holly's strangely disengaged voice-over narration which runs throughout the film, influenced by the teen romance and movie magazines that she reads constantly.  Holly and Kit are strangely dispassionate characters.  There is no great love between them, and Holly never seems to think that they will be together forever, they really seem to just hang out together, and while they have a sexual relationship it is just briefly mentioned.  Kit approaches killing in the same way.  The killings are really murders of convenience, he doesn't seem to have a problem at all with murder, but doesn't particularly enjoy it either, it's just a quicker way of dealing with problems.  Holly never takes part in the murders, she's just there, although they don't particularly bother her either, even her own father's death she just takes in her stride.  The film is set in 1959, although it doesn't really lean into the '50s period, Malick said he wanted it to appear "like a fairytale.  Outside time."  The film does have a strangely lyrical quality.  Kit and Holly build a treehouse in which they live in an Edenic idyll.  Holly's naive narration is accompanied by the gentle strains of Glassenhauer by Carl Orff.  The two exist in their own kind of worlds built by pop culture.  Holly seems to see herself in a teen romance, and Kit, who is frequently compared to James Dean, seems to view himself as an old time cowboy.  At one point Holly speculates on the preparations the authorities are making to catch them, which is depicted like a black and white '50s movie.  Martin Sheen is perfectly cast as the charismatic, but ruthless killer, but the real breakout is Sissy Spacek, who was 22 at the time of filming, playing a 15 year old, her strangely ethereal quality really works for the role, and her flat, heavily accented delivery does cast a spell.  This movie manages to take a conventional narrative, with all the hallmarks of the "lovers on the lam" genre, and turn it into genuine poetry.  It has proven hugely influential on other films in the genre.  True Romance (1993) pays homage with Patricia Arquette's narration being very similar to Sissy Spacek's, and the use of the Glassenhauer music.  Terrence Malick has an uncredited cameo as a man who knocks at a house where Kit and Holly are hiding out.  Also Martin Sheen two sons, Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen, appear very briefly as two boys hanging outside Holly's house.

Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek enter the Badlands