I oftentimes wonder what’s the younger generation’s perception of the older movies. Do they think they’re just lame and boring? Are we talking about the younger generation in general or those who like to watch movies? There are many variables here but I think that only one conclusion arises. I think that most people perceive most movies older than 20 years to be outdated. I say most because I’m sure they have their favorites. If you’re wondering about my perception, it has changed a lot over the years. Only after I turned 35 was I able to timidly starting to consider movies from the 70s and beyond. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always had my favorites but I thought they were the outliers. I thought that almost all of those older movies were just lame and boring.
I thought the issues they explored were shallow and commercial practically pandering to the general population. And while there are a lot of movies like that, there are also a lot of hard-hitting masterpieces that still pack a huge punch after all these years. Pardon me, decades, after all these decades. It’s funny how I see a distinct line between movies from the 70s and 80s but 2000s and 2010s are practically one and the same. Well, was that an intro or what? And, if you’ve read any of my reviews of movies from the seventies, you’re already familiar with this topic. However, I thought it was particularly relevant here. Mostly because the movie we’re going to be talking about influenced several nineties classics.
Badlands is a grippingly bleak and deliciously American neo-noir thriller about a young couple who go on a killing spree across the country. Wait, that sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it? Yes, dear reader, Bonnie and Clyde, released some five years earlier, played a huge part in the creation of this movie. Not just because Terrence Mallick, the writer and director of Badlands, was Arthur Penn’s apprentice. Arthur Penn directed Bonnie and Clyde and both of these movies are based on true events. I also want to mention In Cold Blood, another 1967 classic worth checking out. Badlands was inspired by Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate’s 1958 killing spree.
Meet Kit, a garbage man working in a small South Dakota town in the middle of nowhere with no goals or aspirations. Hardened by life and his experiences during the Korean War, Kit’s just waiting for something to happen. Something that will channel everything he’s been feeling and not feeling. And after he saw young Holly, that path became clear. He remains a man with nothing to lose fully aware that their fairy tale will come to an inevitable end. After the opening five minutes, I knew this was going to be a great movie. The way Mallick lets scenes breathe and his unflinching depiction of realities of life immerses you fully into this story. Into this story full of polar opposites clashing in the most predictable and yet also fascinating ways.
First of all, I want to mention the cinematography because it was simply stunning considering the $300.000 budget. Badlands is a tight and perfectly edited movie featuring a surprisingly short runtime of just under 90 minutes. The pacing is just right and we will travel a lot during this time. The movie also features a carefully layered story with our two characters protruding from the top of this neo-noir cake. You might argue that there’s a third person there and that’s our society. Because the characters feel so realistic they’re also quite ambiguous when it comes to their motivations. We are all many things all at once. However, we can say with certainty that Kit is an outcast.
We also may talk about the lack of other opportunities in a small town where if you’re not looking to be an Average Joe Family Guy, you’re fucked. Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot about the cattle ranch but I don’t want to spoil anything. On the other hand, Holly is just 15 years old, a teenager without a developed prefrontal cortex that would enable her to make better decisions and understand the ways of the world. It is estimated that when you turn 25, the development is complete. Oddly enough, Kit is exactly 25 years old. Their romance is kind of sweet but also doomed from the start. And it is gripping to watch it unfold.
Especially when you know that most of this stuff actually happened in real life. Since the story is taking place in 1959 we will get the chance to see some truly beautiful cars. Martin Sheen’s character, Kit drives a pitch-black 1951 Mercury Coupe, a fucking tank. He, later on, switches over to another beauty, a voluptuous 1959 Cadillac Series 62 Hardtop Coupe. As you can guess, I’m not a fan of modern automobiles from a purely aesthetic aspect. In the second half of the movie, we will also get several gorgeous Americana scenes. They capture something truly fascinating and so encompassing that it’s hard to describe them.
Kit’s living life in the moment fully appreciating what’s going on but instantly compensating that with a negative and also very realistic outcome of that situation. So, he comes off as emotionless but you know that this process is still happening inside him. He and Holly wanted to create their own fairy tale inside our society and the vastness of the American landscape. A sort of a twisted Romeo and Juliet tale. Twenty years later, we will get another wave of even more cynical, nihilistic, and destructive movies. I’m talking about Kalifornia and Natural Born Killers. To end on a positive note, I guess True Romance is a counterweight to all of that.
Director: Terrence Malick
Writer: Terrence Malick
Cast: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri, Alan Vint, John Carter
Fun Facts: The marketing for this movie attracted the attention of the infamous Zodiac killer. When he saw the tagline: “In 1959 a lot of people were killing time. Kit and Holly were killing people” he broke his silence and wrote a letter to the media scorning the producers for their “flippant attitude toward violence”,
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069762/
