Rating: 
Summary: The original True Romance
Review: The first time I saw this film was on video. Before the film was the theatrical trailer. It started with a balloon floating above a barren landscape. A voice-over tells us that the young couple of the film are Kit and Holly. In 1950 they killed a lot of people. The balloon bursts to reveal the title "Badlands". This is effortlessly cool, it hasn't dated a bit. The amount Tarantino "borrowed" from this film is unbelievable, Hanz Zimmer even copied one of the songs. Buy it, its well worth having in your collection; if your serious about films.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless
Review: I saw this movie when it first came out in 1973, & I was 20 years old. I still rate it brilliant film-making; & always see something a little different, some tiny facet that I hadn't noticed before, whenever I watch it. One never tires of a classic, & Badlands is a definite classic! I only wish the movie's soundtrack would be released.
Rating:
Summary: Explores the possibilities of the filmic medium
Review: I became aware of Terrence Malick's work as a filmmaker after being stunned by his 1998 epic "The Thin Red Line". In tracking down the rest of his work I was both dismayed and relieved (financially) to learn he had directed just two other films. "Badlands", though his debut, already is awash with his trademark style and may be his most daring effort. That being said I don't think "Badlands" is a film for everyone. Though the story is captivating and enjoyable, the narrative is de-emphasized for complex themes and gorgeous visuals. Malick makes his points with incredible subtlety, perhaps even to a fault. However, this makes "Badlands'" mystique only grow with repeated viewings. The robustness of detail is absolutely mind-blowing. Most impressive is how Malick creates a paradoxical environment between the images, sounds, and narrative. Sissy Spacek's naive narration is in direct contrast to a relatively uninspiring romance we see. Perhaps most stunning is overwhelming trapped feeling the film evokes while being set in the spartan, vast, and barren landscapes of the Great Plains. These are just a few examples of a film that endlessly confounds and intrigues. I rank it with Chinatown and Taxi Driver as the pinnacle of US produced film in the 70's. If you want to explore the possibilities of film I can't think of anything to recommend more highly.
Rating: 
Summary: KIT AND HOLLY GO KILLING : A MORAL TALE
Review: The world of BADLANDS, Terrence Malick's first movie, is a world without God. Holly's father, Warren Oates, a painter, an artist, a creator has been shot to death by Kit. He has left a world unfinished, imperfect ; he didn't have the time to give feelings to men. So Kit and Holly, without a single trace of guiltiness or moral sense, are going to be the Adam and Eva of this nightmarish Eden. But they can't appreciate this Nature they have been thrown into. Because the apple Sissy Spacek eats is rotten ; sex isn't a taboo anymore. Furthermore, Martin Sheen is too busy to play his James Dean character than to live an impassioned romance with Sissy. One recognizes in BADLANDS several themes that Terrence Malick will treat again 5 years later in DAYS OF HEAVEN with Richard Gere and Sam Shepard. Sissy Spacek's point of view, heartless and purely descriptive, is exactly the same point of view that Linda Manz will adopt in DAYS OF HEAVEN. BADLANDS is a terribly pessimistic movie, it describes a world which is a sort of a mad god's dream, a world that could be ours in a few years, a world that we deserve, a world that we would have created. Alone. Subtitles and scene access as bonus features. Video and audio OK for me. A DVD for the Genesis fans.
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: "He was handsomer then anybody I've ever met, he looked just like James Dean" narrates the naieve voice over of the gently nostalgic Holly (Sissy Spacek) towards the beginning of Badlands. A serliar killer movie so spare and lacking in sensationalism that its bound to dissapoint the less thoughtful among its viewers. Kit (Matin Sheen) is a real, confident and familiar looking person. He is not a sociopathic religious zealot or a man on a mission, his murders are mostly a matter of convenience, murders that he wouldn't have commited had he not been cornered. He doesn't like killing, but doesn't particualry seem regretful of them either. In short, HE WASN'T EMOTIONALLY INVOLVED. "He never met a 15 year old who behved like a grown up up and weren't gigly" narrates Holly. She too is a loner, living with a morose and firm father. She is smitten by Kit straight away because he seems to be the only one who would accept her. When Kit kills her father early on in the film, there is no screaming, agitation or hysteria you would find in a similar scene in other films. The most chilling thing about this film is the matter of fact manner in which the murders take place. Malick then contrasts this with the bare, spare and beautiful great out doors of South Dakota and Montana. In his best film, the masterpiece The Thin Red Line he suggested that the cruelty of man was natural, that it was only an extention of what goes on in the animal world. Here the idealogy is even more disturbing, which is cruelty and murder as a matter of convenience. Therefore there are now flashy death scenes or stylistic violence, there isn't even a love scene between Kit and Holly. We do not go along for the ride like for example Bonnie and Clyde, instead we examine the events from above. When Kit threatens a couple with a gun, Holly just strolls after him, and tries to socialise with the girl, like Kit she isn't emotionally connected with the murders, her narration suggests nostalgia, as if she was watching these events in a film herself. The only time Kit loses his temper is when Holly refuses to go with him on a car chase from the police, "He wanted a girl to cry over his dead body, he was wondering if he could read about himself in the papers the day after his death." The only thing that would anger him is that he may "GO DOWN IN THE SAME PLAYED OUT SCENES" like Bruce Springsteen says in his song Badlands. Terrance Malick has made three film, all masterpieces. The Thin Red Line remains his best (or anybody's best). Badlands however remains a unique, thoughtful and beautiful film. And for that it should be considered a classic.
Rating:
Summary: Better rented than purchased
Review: I can't say I'm sorry I saw this movie, because I'm not. No one who, like me, hopes to become a filmmaker should miss the breathtaking photography, and stunning juxtaposition of the landscapes onto the inner "landscapes" of the characters' minds, the attention to detail, the well-chosen actors with their unimpeachable acting, or the effective mixing of the music to the scenes. Only "Withnail and I," a very different film with a very different story to tell, begins to compare in my mind. It's just that the movie takes so much out of you that, after the second or third viewing, you find yourself wondering if you could maybe have rented it for a buck and spent the other fourteen on dinner or another film. Not to be missed, as I say, but owning it is mainly for those with strong constitutions.
Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable debut from Terrence Malick
Review: This is one of the best criminal/lovers on the run films to date. As in all of director Malick's films, the music, acting, and photography are all first rate. Malick does not stylize or glorify the violence like too many other films of the same plotting. The violence makes its impact on the viewer without resorting to any exaggerations or excessiveness. What is most striking about the film are its many contrasts with the characters. For example, the characters' alienation is depicted in the shots of lonely desolate landscapes. Many of their spoken thoughts, points of view, and statements are absolutely senseless....just like their killings. Martin Sheen is very chilling as the remorseless and trigger-happy Kit. What also makes Badlands different is that the film does not blame society for the behavior of Kit and Holly (played wonderfully by Sissy Spacek). Powerful, chilling, extremely well done and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Major achievment-very reminiscent of Bonnie and Clyde
Review: This is a brilliant film about the thin line between love and hate, and how things can go wrong. It seems to be the same "Bonnie and Clyde beginner's film hash off" type of movie but it isn't. At times, it's even better, because of Malick's detailed, breath-taking Kubrick-like photography. Great acting and well-built suspense doesn't get tiring, and is gripping throughout the entire movie. Worth a rent.
Rating:
Summary: Bittersweet tale of love and hate
Review: Sissy Specek and Martin Sheen perform well in the story of love on the run. It's heartbreaking to see Specek's torn between the love for a rebellious young man. And the heartbreak of leaving her dead father knowing that the man she thinks she loves is also the man who kills him. People who live in large cities will love the panoramic scenes of the wide open prairies.
Rating:
Summary: Four stars, three for the movie plus one for the music.
Review: I have not found a recording of the soundtrack, but the most interesting music is available on CD - Carl Orff, Schulwerk Volume 1, Musica Poetica.
|
