Bottomline: If you are a movie fan, then you need to see this one.
Pros: Excellent example of the "new Hollywood" style of filmmaking. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are terrific.
Cons: It is disturbing. Has an "independent" movie feel, which will turn off some people.
Where Can I See It? It's available for rent on DVD.
QMR Opinion: In the late 1950s, Charles Starkweather, in his 20s, and Caril Ann Fugate, a teen-ager, went on a road trip and killed 11 people. It was a national sensation and has inspired a number of films and at least one song by Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska. Badlands, directed by Terrence Malick, is one of the films inspired by the Starkweather and Fugate killing spree. Kit Carruthers (Martin Sheen) is 25 and Holly Sargis (Sissy Spacek) is 15. They meet in their small town and fall in love. Her father, played by Warren Oates, doesn't approve, which leads to Kit killing him and the two lovers running off together. If it weren't for the increasing body count, this might be a cute love story. In the late 60s and early 70s, a group of directors were inspired by European filmmakers to begin trying their hand at creating films with a grittier and less optimistic tone. Examples of this type of New Hollywood film would be Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Graduate (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Mean Streets (1973) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). If anything, what makes Badlands particularly effective is Sissy Spacek's narration as young Holly. She simply tells the story with no sense of remorse or emotion when it comes to Kit's killing of a number of people. The movie is designed to be a disturbing, yet compelling, story and it succeeds on all levels.
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