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Badlands
Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven) made his first serious impression as a filmmaker with 1973's Badlands, a handsomely-mounted fact-based crime drama rich with stylish direction, arresting visual images, and two enigmatic lead characters brought beautifully to life by the actors portraying them.
It's South Dakota in the late 1950's where we meet Holly (Sissy Spacek) a sensitive and introverted 15 year old who finds herself drawn to the decade older Kit (Martin Sheen), an angry young man with a James Dean complex. Holly's father doesn't approve of the relationship and when Kit's attempt to win over Holly's dad fails, he impulsively murders the man, sending Kit and Holly on the run, resulting in a killing spree that resulted in the death of at least a dozen people.
Malick's screenplay is based on the real life killing spree by Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, but the names are changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. One element of the story that grew on me was Holly's narration, which initially seems unneccesary, but as the film progresses, it becomes important because it is our only exposure to how Holly really feels about Kit.
And this where the story becomes alternately confusing and riveting, thanks primarily to Malick's direction. Kit is instantly attracted to Holy but respects her, while it is clear through Holly's body language, that she wants more than anything to have a sexual relationship with Kit, but she never says anything nor does she try to start anything, which creates an undeniable sexual tension between the characters that never really gets resolved (at least according to this film). The characters only share one kiss, which occurs 25 minutes before the closing credits. Don't really believe that these two never had sex, but maybe one of the conditions put upon Malick to get the film greenlighted was to leave out any implications of sex between a 15 year old girl and a 25 year old man.
Malick mounts this story on a breathtaking canvas, offering superior camerawork showing Kit and Holly traveling across the South Dakota badlands, determined to start a life together, but not really having a set in stone plan either. There's such a realism in the fact that Holly sees most of the wrong that Kit does in this story, but only says no to him once during the entire running time. It was also interesting watching Kit's self-preservation and his compunction for homicide eventually be dominated by the feeling that he will be caught and pay for the consequences of his actions, a rarity for movie characters like Kit.
Malick gets first rate assistance from his cinematography team and I loved George Aliceson Tipton's loopy music, over which Malik obviously exercised some control, as it doesn't punctuate every second of film. Martin Sheen is sexy and dangerous in his Oscar-worthy turn as Kit, looking exactly like his son Charlie, a few years before he started on Two and a Half Men. It's a powerhouse performance with minimal scenery chewing...that scene where he talks the rich guy into letting him and Holly hide out in his mansion made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Sissy Spacek is equally charismatic, effectively foreshadowing the movie star she would become three year later starring in Carrie. Warren Oates makes his brief role as Holly's dad count and also liked Alan Vint as a young deputy. A riveting and intense fact-based story that was the inspiration for the Oliver Stone film Natural Born Killers and for a 2004 TV movie called Starkweather.
Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven) made his first serious impression as a filmmaker with 1973's Badlands, a handsomely-mounted fact-based crime drama rich with stylish direction, arresting visual images, and two enigmatic lead characters brought beautifully to life by the actors portraying them.
It's South Dakota in the late 1950's where we meet Holly (Sissy Spacek) a sensitive and introverted 15 year old who finds herself drawn to the decade older Kit (Martin Sheen), an angry young man with a James Dean complex. Holly's father doesn't approve of the relationship and when Kit's attempt to win over Holly's dad fails, he impulsively murders the man, sending Kit and Holly on the run, resulting in a killing spree that resulted in the death of at least a dozen people.
Malick's screenplay is based on the real life killing spree by Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, but the names are changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. One element of the story that grew on me was Holly's narration, which initially seems unneccesary, but as the film progresses, it becomes important because it is our only exposure to how Holly really feels about Kit.
And this where the story becomes alternately confusing and riveting, thanks primarily to Malick's direction. Kit is instantly attracted to Holy but respects her, while it is clear through Holly's body language, that she wants more than anything to have a sexual relationship with Kit, but she never says anything nor does she try to start anything, which creates an undeniable sexual tension between the characters that never really gets resolved (at least according to this film). The characters only share one kiss, which occurs 25 minutes before the closing credits. Don't really believe that these two never had sex, but maybe one of the conditions put upon Malick to get the film greenlighted was to leave out any implications of sex between a 15 year old girl and a 25 year old man.
Malick mounts this story on a breathtaking canvas, offering superior camerawork showing Kit and Holly traveling across the South Dakota badlands, determined to start a life together, but not really having a set in stone plan either. There's such a realism in the fact that Holly sees most of the wrong that Kit does in this story, but only says no to him once during the entire running time. It was also interesting watching Kit's self-preservation and his compunction for homicide eventually be dominated by the feeling that he will be caught and pay for the consequences of his actions, a rarity for movie characters like Kit.
Malick gets first rate assistance from his cinematography team and I loved George Aliceson Tipton's loopy music, over which Malik obviously exercised some control, as it doesn't punctuate every second of film. Martin Sheen is sexy and dangerous in his Oscar-worthy turn as Kit, looking exactly like his son Charlie, a few years before he started on Two and a Half Men. It's a powerhouse performance with minimal scenery chewing...that scene where he talks the rich guy into letting him and Holly hide out in his mansion made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Sissy Spacek is equally charismatic, effectively foreshadowing the movie star she would become three year later starring in Carrie. Warren Oates makes his brief role as Holly's dad count and also liked Alan Vint as a young deputy. A riveting and intense fact-based story that was the inspiration for the Oliver Stone film Natural Born Killers and for a 2004 TV movie called Starkweather.