BADLANDS (1973): Young garbage man Kit Caruthers (Martin Sheen) and his girlfriend, Holly (Sissy Spacek) hit the road in South Dakota on the run from the law. Writer-director Terrence Malick's script (for his feature film debut), based on a real outlaw couple in 1958, does not judge its characters as they make their way to the Badlands of Montana, leaving a trail of senseless and random murders in their wake. (95 mins)Thoughts from Badlands...
Utilizes the stark landscape and verite cinemetography
The woman is the storyteller while the action is done by the man- in other words, the laconic voice over in the begining represents apathy rather than agency.
- Kit deisires to become a rebellion like James Dean, and yet his dream is to move to Canada and get a job on an oil rig (rather a blue collar worker's dream)
- Play-acting by Kit and Holly
build a treehouse and play house
kit plays a soldier who must protect their camp
Holly plays at being a cheerleader and an outlaw
- There is a futility to the chase that Kit is loathe to admit- it ends because he runs out of gas.
- Kit is likeable- even glorified by the police at the end and we, as the distance audience (like Holly), can comment on the lack of real disctinction between good and evil, law and disorder.
- "Outlaws belong in society"
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