I literally watched Barry Lyndon right after finishing this film for the first time. Barry Lyndon is my favorite Kubrick film but Badlands is a cathartic experience on a whole other level, definitely in my top 5 films of all time
I understand what you mean, and am glad you appreciate this great film. But isn't what you're talking about photography, rather than cinema?. Thinking of Badlands' greatness in terms of a sequence of still frames (sumptuously composed through they maybe be) doesn't seem to do it justice as the great work of moving images that it is...
Along with Night of the Hunter, one of the true shooting stars of American Cinema. No film , before or after, has ever been this nostalgic, haunting, melancholic, and oddly funny at the same time. Malick kept some things in his later films (most notably the use of voiceover) but he took them in a different path. And I love those films, but Badlands remains a goddamm miracle.
Night of the Hunter has fascinated me since childhood and the first dvd I bought. So many beautiful, haunting images in a straight storyline. Great line from Mitchum in the cellar, “That’s concrete!” And the howls from a big man with a small knife.
I saw this on television in the 70's and none of it was censored. You know how perfect it was watching that opening? BTW we weren't connected by phones or videos or computers we just had small towns that dotted the landscape and they were all pretty much the same. One sunny day in the 70's could last about 6 years in today's measurement of time. Ya just kicked around looking for something to do. Seriously you could spend a half a day trying to straighten out a bed spring, or carving a stick. And that's a normal idea of what we did for fun.
Badlands and Days of Heaven are way more accessible than the rest of Malick's output, and might heighten your tolerance for his other films. They're really beautiful, lyrical movies, with simple but twisted romances at the core. Not as ambitious as TTRL, closer to The New World, but a little more reigned in. Visually stunning, naturally.
Fuuck idk what it is but the music feels so nostalgic and far away, llike something from my childhood And I've seen this movie two weeks ago for the first time
@@fraser_mr2009 One of the Cinematographer, s was Brian Probyn who later photographed Holiday on the Buses and The Satanic Rites of Dracula both for Hammer
I wasn't much of a fan of Tree of Life either but earlier Mallick is different. There seems to be less self-awareness as "a master" and he is just putting imagery on the screen that he wants to see and is unlike anything else. This and Days of Heaven are his best and well worth checking out.
"The Thin Red Line" takes a really long time to finish, with most of the cinematography being what remains of the untouched nature. Badlands, although featuring beautiful cinematography, isn't as philosophical or demanding. It does feature many of Malick's usual tropes: insightful voiceovers, long-shots, bizarre music, and, of course, shows man's place in nature.
The use of Carl Orff pieces is very nice, pensive and invites simple observation with sense of time. As in all Malick films we see people doing seemingly quirky things during and following dramatic life moments. People do … things while wondering how they should act.
Pardon; I was actually referring to Malick's storytelling decisions when I said he was a minimalist. I feel his stories can demand a little too much speculation from the audience. There's nothing wrong with a plot to ask its audience a few questions or even leave major plot details up to speculation, but the problem I've had with Malick's recent films is that there just hasn't been (in my opinion) enough solid plot for me to care about the characters or situations.
No no. I just mean it's kind of eerie, but present. It's not brooding in the background, like Hans Zimmer's stuff usually does (like in "The Thin Red Line"). It's more in your face, and you definitely notice it more, with the weird melody on the marimba.
My favorites of his are The Thin Red Line (because the whole use of his trademark imagery infused with thought-provoking voice overs actually make sense in that war setting) and of course, Badlands. I just couldn't get into Tree of Life. Days of Heaven is good too.
if you are going to use the term "minimalistic", use it for someone who answers the criterias (Bresson for exemple)... there is way too much of everything in Malick's films to call them that.
Jason L that's cos Zimmer was asked to pastiche/mimic it -- Tarantino is a postmodernist and he wrote screenplay for True Romance --- the title even reduces or translates Badlands' narrative as a 'true romance' ie flattens it to a kind superficial rendering
Tarantino wrote the scripts for True Romance and Natural Born Killers as his take on the Starkweather killing spree. Killers was actually very accurate in that regard. He took his name off that movie after Oliver Stone changed so many things. True Romance was more two young lovers on the run part of the Starkweather spree. Badlands is a very good "fictional" movie based on Starkweather.
Kit is horrible but I find her daddy equally horrible for shooting her pet dog over the relationship with Kit and I still think this film glamorized the crimes and Starkweather Tim Roth and Fairuza Balk in Murder in the Heartland are better I even hate Holly in this she is either guilty or that stupid Fairuza plays how I feel the real Caril felt stuck and scared and there was n evidence and they used him and his unreliable word to put her away for half her life my opinion I used to think she was in it but the more research I did I feel different those pics of them after they were caught and during the crimes could be fake smiles out of her fear they did not all look genuine to me but yeah in this her Dad is psycho too to kill a dog she loved because she disobeys him? who does that what normal person does that and in front of her ?
How the do dies is never shown. He comes upon it while doing his job. But it begs the question; did the owners put it out with the trash rather than bury it?
I really disliked Thin Red Line and Tree of Life (Tree of Life I'd ever go as far as to say I hated), but this actually does look REALLY good. Terrence Malick's style is just a little too minimal for my taste. Can anybody tell me if Badlands is a stylistic outlier for Malick?
Springsteen wrote a song about the Starkweather killing spree in which this movie is based. "I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died From the town of Lincoln Nebraska with a sawed-off .410 on my lap Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done At least for a little while sir, me and her we had us some fun" -Nebraska
I remember listening to a Dick Cavett interview where he told a story about how his dad would always talk to the garbage man who later turned out to be Charles Starkweather. Small world.
Small/ or indie movies is where its at. The last good Big "Hollywood" film I've seen in the theaters was Inarritu's "The Revenant" which was a masterpiece!
Sorry but I have to ask I caught 10 minutes of this film and it looks really good but now after seeing this clip I'm not sure I can watch it, do any animals die apart from this one?
@Anne Liesveld Roger that ! I love my dogs and respect all animals, but our society has reached a point where we treat animals like humans. Or even better.
