Badlands Movie Review

Terrence Malick introduced his odd yet highly compelling filmmaking style in this 1973 feature, inspired by the long murder spree of Charles Starkweather (here Kit Carruthers, played by Martin Sheen). Carruthers is a garbage man who spies Holly (Sissy Spacek, who narrates disaffectedly) twirling her baton, soon after he's shot her family dead and they're on the run, living in the woods and the badlands of the northern midwest as they try to get to Canada to make a hastily planned escape. Body counts rise, but Malick isn't overly concerned with the violence. He takes us inside the heads of this bizarre duo, the quiet sociopath Kit and the even quieter neurotic Holly. One of cinema's most curious character studies and probably still Malick's best film.