Taglines: In 1959 a lot of people were killing time. Kit and Holly were killing people.
Badlands movie storyline. It’s the late 1950s. Mid-twenty-something Kit is a restless and unfocused young man with a James Dean vibe and swagger which he has heard mentioned about him more than once. Fifteen year old Holly has a somewhat cold relationship with her sign painter father, if only because she is the primary reminder of his wife, who died of pneumonia when Holly was a child.
The two meet when Holly and her father move from Texas to the small town where Kit lives, Fort Dupree, South Dakota. They slowly fall in love, something about which she cannot tell her father because of their age difference and Kit coming from the wrong side of the tracks. When he tries to take Holly away with him, Kit, on an impulse, shoots her father dead.
After letting the initial emotions of the situation settle down, Holly decides voluntarily to go with Kit, they trying to make it look like they committed suicide in a house fire. But they soon learn that their plan did not work, there being a bounty on their heads. As such, Kit continues his murderous ways in order to protect the life he wants to eke out with Holly.
She, on the other hand, wants to support Kit, especially as he begins to feel more and more trapped, but she may only be able to endure what looks increasingly to be a battle they cannot win as a couple. Through it all, they openly and privately muse about their philosophies on their life considering their current circumstance.
Badlands is a 1973 American neo-noir[2] period crime drama film written, produced and directed by Terrence Malick, in his directorial debut. Starring Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates and Ramon Bieri, the story, though fictional, is loosely based on the real-life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, in 1958, though that basis was not acknowledged when the film was released. Like many of Malick’s films, Badlands is notable for its lyrical photography, and its music, which includes pieces by Carl Orff. The film is the on-screen debut of Sheen’s sons Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, as uncredited extras.
Badlands is often cited by film critics as one of the greatest and most influential films of all time. In 1993, four years after the United States National Film Registry was established, it was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
Badlands (1973)
Directed by: Terrence Malick
Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Ramon Bieri, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri, Alan Vint, John Carter, Bryan Montgomery, Charles Fitzpatrick, Howard Ragsdale, John Womack Jr.
Screenplay by: Terrence Malick
Cinematography by: Tak Fujimoto, Stevan Larner, Brian Probyn
Film Editing by: Robert Estrin, Billy Weber
Costume Design by: Rosanna Norton
Art Direction by: Jack Fisk
Music by: George Aliceson Tipton
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: October 15, 1973
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