Movie : Badlands

A young guy, Kit, working on a garbage truck in a small prairie town knocks off early.  He sees a young girl, Holly, twirling a baton in her front yard.  He approaches her and they go for a walk.  She tells him that her daddy wouldn’t approve of him, being a  garbage man and from the wrong side of the tracks.  Despite this they fall in love.  Holly’s dad puts the kibosh on the relationship which sets Kit off ending up with the father being shot.  Holly and Kit load up the car and go on the run.  They hide out in the forest for a while until the law catches up with them.  They escape after a bloody shoot out and are on the run again.  They end up at an old friend of Kit’s where more bad events happen.  They move onto another place, steal a Caddy and end up driving across the great plains where they make their final stand against the law.

Babyhead could go on and on about how much he liked this film and the reasons why.  From top to bottom it is one great movie.  An all time favorite.

Terence Malick directs a beautiful piece of work with a clear vision of what he wanted.  The cinematography captures his story and the images.  The dialogue is authentic and real,  sparse and effective.  Holly’s narration puts an eerie voice to their time together.  The performances are flawless.  Everything is in tune with what Malick had envisioned.  Image after image, scene after scene sticks with you.  The first image that was noticed was the boots Kit was wearing.  Perfect.  Holly and Kit dancing outside the car to the music from the radio, stepping on the dead cow, the drives across the prairies,  Cato’s place. Smorgasbord of memorable shots.  Cinematographers, Tak Fujimoto, Stevan Larner and Brian Probyn capture everything beautifully.

Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek bring a cold reality to their characters.  Spacek plays Holly with a childlike naivety.  Scary in it’s acceptance of what’s taking place.  Sheen’s Kit is all impulsive.  Like he’s moving through his own dreamworld.  Violent, likable, the all- American psychopath.  Fantastic performance.  Realistic in it’s simplicity.  Supporting roles are few but good.  Warren Oates plays Holly’s father.  He is always worth watching for CB

Badlands is an all time favorite film for CB.  The sense of time and place takes you for the ride.  Beautifully shot, directed and acted.

Hop in the Caddy with Holly and Kit and experience a great flick.

 

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