"A Hidden Life" Leadup - "Badlands"
BADLANDS (1973) – Dir. Terrence Malick
For the next couple of months, I will be posting about each film by Terrence Malick—one of my favorite American directors—leading up to the late December release of his upcoming film A Hidden Life.
I start at the most obvious place when Malick burst onto the cinematic landscape with his debut film Badlands (1973). This film represents a new directorial debut in what has become known as the American New Wave (or “New Hollywood”) era of cinema history. Along with Scorsese, Spielberg, Lucas, and Coppola, Malick began to make his mark on the Hollywood landscape. Badlands may at first appear to be just another story of a romantic couple on the run from the law – something like 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, 1994’s controversial Natural Born Killers, the upcoming Queen & Slim, or even Wes Anderson’s 2012 Moonrise Kingdom. The film follows a 25-year-old James Dean-esque rebel without a cause, Kit (Martin Sheen), and his 15-year-old girlfriend Holly (Sissy Spacek). The story is taken from a real-life Texas killing spree of 1958 involving Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate. The story has taken on a now-mythic status in the region and Malick has his mind on the story as an American myth. But his eyes are also on humanity’s deeper desires and dreams.
Kit murders Holly’s father right in front of her. He shoots down many others in an attempt to flee from the destruction of his anger. Holly and Kit view this without any significant outward emotion. They are detached from the horror of their sin. It’s seen as just another act they do, like shaving or building a treehouse. The stretch of the movie with the most cinematic beauty is Kit and Holly’s construction of a treehouse home in the woods. They are Adam and Eve after the fall, living off the land, and hiding from their guilt. The beautiful land is an attempt at Eden, but Eden is interrupted by those pursuing Kit and Holly to punish them for their crimes. But for a few brief scenes, everything is right in the world. There are occasional spats between the couple, but the idyllic land is filled with the wonder and beauty of nature. Kit and Holly exist like Henry David Thoreau in Walden. They have peace and simplicity. This is how life should be. As critic Hannah Anderson says in an essay, “The central protagonists in Terrence Malick’s films are caught up in, or driven by, a search: for a different kind of life, a sense of self, a reason for being, or a spiritual presence in the world.”
What is Malick after in this film? For one, he is showing a poetic search for meaning and happiness against the backdrop of American idealism and American myth. He is re-telling a notorious myth in American history, the one of a romantic but violent Bonnie and Clyde couple on the run. What do they want? What are they searching for? What are they thinking? He brings empathy to these characters. It isn’t a blaze of passionate bloodlust, but a desire for Eden. In the end, their violence is not rewarded with Eden, but punishment. Kit faces the death penalty because of his killing spree.
But all this comes crashing down as they are unable to escape from the Law. They seek Grace in nature, but the Law is always looming. There is no Savior in Badlands. They seek Eden but find it only briefly. They are then whisked away to the Badlands of Montana. There, they function less like Adam and Eve in Eden and more like Cain wandering to the East of it.
Rating (Out of 5 stars): ★★★★ ½
Where to watch: Rent from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu
by Mitch Wiley