Examining Badlands

Title: Examining Badlands
Year: 2013
Writer: Michael Carlisle

Terrence Malick is a polarizing figure in the world of cinema; many claim he is an absolute genius, creating astonishing works like Tree of Life, The Thin Red Line and Days of Heaven, others think he is a talentless hack only capable of making flawed and/or sleep inducing films. I once thought the latter until I watched his complex 1973 debut Badlands. His directorial introduction the the silver screen was an atom bomb full of thought, imagination and originality. Even months after I've watched the film I find myself in deep thought over it, attempting to grasp the characters, their motives and the many themes within this 94 minute spectacular.

For those of you who don't know, Badlands is based on the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1958, in which a fifteen-year-old girl and her twenty-five-year-old boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands. Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now) stars as the charismatic James Dead look-alike Kit, and Sissy Spacek (Carrie) plays a secondary role as his girlfriend Holly.

In many ways Badlands reminds me of Arthur Penn's 1967 breakthrough Bonnie and Clyde. Both films are about a notorious couple who murder a lot of people, doing what they can to escape from their impoverished lives. Both films begin the same way; with the heroine in her bed, wanting to escape their dull world in hopes of adventure. The female protagonists eventually do find their adventure in the form of two handsome men, but eventually realize they have dug themselves far too deep and find themselves passive victims of male domination and manipulation.

The two male lead characters in both Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands are also strikingly similar. Clyde Barrow is an ambiguous man who is incredibly insecure about himself. He's very charismatic and opportunistic, but has deep feelings of anxiety and fear. Kit is pretty much the same way; on the outside he looks calm and cool like James Dean, but on the inside he is a ticking timebomb. Many of his murders are done without thought, a last minute panic attack. For both men death is a game, but while Clyde has a laugh out of it, Kit stares coldly. His disregard for human life goes beyond pychiatric care, he is a sociopath. 

Both films also play on themes of innocence. Though Bonnie and Clyde spend their lives robbing banks and shooting cops, we still feel sympathy for them because of their justifiable line "we rob banks". Both characters feel they are the victims of the Great Depression and need to rob in order to survive. We also feel some sympathy for Kit, only because we see the events unfolding through Holly's eyes. This is Malick's genius; when Holly sees her boyfriend as her savior in a cruel heartless world, we do too. When Holly becomes suspicious of his actions and sees him as the cold being that he is, we follow along. The film's overall mood changes as time progresses; at first we feel a sense of freedom, romance and adventure, but after a while we feel trapped and helpless. Much like Bonnie and Clyde, the character's worlds shrink the more "free" they think they are.

Malick's film can be seen as a warning against society's ideals regarding sex and gender. Women are told to be calm, passive, peaceful and to listen to their man. Holly embodies this, but enters a world of hurt because of it. Kit is the stereotypical dominant man who lacks emotion and thrives off competition, however he is more monster than human. Many women stay in abusive relationships out of fear and passivity, Badlands is a loud gesture to GET OUT. Speak up against opression and don't fall for somebody just because they ooze charisma.

Why can our world be cruel? Malick doesn't seem to have an answer, but he does suggest that running away from society is not an intelligent idea. Our real world is full of people like Kit and Holly, those who thrive on destruction and those who dont know any better. While both characters spend the film searching for meaning, it seems that they never find any of it. At the end of the film does Kit know the reason why he is running from police anymore? As Malick progresses, we see a an optimistic young man transform into a rabid animal. His life becomes literally like the title of James Dean's most famous film Rebel Without a Cause.

Near the end of the film this "rebel" turns into action hero as he evades police capture, brandishing a gun and makeshift shield. Holly comes to realization and stops in her tracks, realizing that she is trapped in his madness and the only way out is to give herself up. Its quite a beautiful feminist moment because the whole film was building up to it, the liberation of Holly's soul from Kits hell. Malick's flawless film comes to a satisfactory ending.