Terrence Malick: Badlands

Director - Terrence Malick
Writer - Terrence Malick

Cast Character
Martin Sheen ... Kit
Sissy Spacek ... Holly
Warren Oates ... Father
Ramon Bieri ... Cato

Badlands begins with a girl called Holly remembering how her mother died. Her mother dies of pneumonia and her father moved from Texas to South Dakota. A garbage truck comes onto the road and we see Kit doing his work. As he smokes his cigarette he notices Holly twirling her baton. He asks Holly to take a walk with him. His friend tells him he has been fired and goes looking for another job. Holly thinks he is handsome and they make small talk.

He asks if she wants to go for a ride with and she goes on with him. Even though she doesn't have a lot to say he still likes her. He likes her maturity and that she isn't giggly. They share each-other's eccentricities and habits. Kit makes a vow he will always be with her. He wrote this down, put it in a box and sent it off in a balloon he found on his route. He tells her that these happy days are only temporary and will be gone forever. He is realistic and not blind to the emotion of love. She although awestruck is simple and practical. They don't have grand yearnings only to enjoy what is both feasible and attainable.

Her father finds out she has been seeing this guy and in punishment he shoots her dog. He puts her in extra music lessons after school and picks her up so she can't see Kit. Kit visits her father to have a talk. He tells him Holly means a lot to him. He tells him he has respect for her. Her father tells him he isn't good enough for Holly and that he doesn't want to see him again. Kit goes to Holly's house and packs her clothes. The father sees him in the house and tells him to get out of there.

The father says he will turn him over to the police and Kit says he won't let him do that. Kit shoots hm dead. Kit smokes a cigarette like nothing happened. Holly tells her father strangely that everything will be okay even though he is dead. Holly wants to call the doctor not accepting he is dead. Later she hits Kit finally accepting the death of her father. He leaves her in her house. She looks out the window and sees two children outside playing and realizes that's what she and Kit are. He records and burns the house down. They change their names to James and Priscilla and decide to go up north.

They build a house in the trees and learn to survive with only what nature provides. They find uses for everything. They survive by stealing chickens or melons and live without rules as children again. They build traps and Kit teaches her how to use a gun in case she needed it. She reads to him and he catches fish in the river with a wooden net he built. She wonders what life would be like if all this never happened.

Kit and Holly see a man with a gun and hide. Kit stays underground in a hole he built and shoots the three sheriffs dead. They leave their whole little built town behind. Kit didn't feel bad because he overheard them talking about a reward.

They visit Cato, an old friend, and give him a chicken. The man tells them there are sine coins a man found in the fields. He sees the man running to the house suspiciously and Kit shoots him knowing he will turn him in. Holly gets used to his shootings and introduces herself to the shot Cato. They meet a couple coming to the house and Kit locks him in an outdoor cellar.

Kit is beginning to realize how stupid some of his decisions were. In her dream world Holly imagines the screen going Sepia brown and the town closes down, people hide in their homes and a detective comes down from up north to find them. Her only way of coping with Kit and his maniacal behavior is to turn inward and imagine it is all a movie.

He goes to a rich man's house and wants to stay there a couple of hours. The man complies. Kit records his ironic beliefs in the old fashioned dictaphone despite all the murders he has committed, "Listen to your parents and teachers they got a line on most things so don't treat them like enemies. There's always an outside chance you could learn something. Try to keep an open mind. Try to to understand the viewpoints of others. Consider the minority opinion but try to get along with the majority opinion once it's accepted."

He takes the man's car and miraculously doesn't kill him and the maid. They look at the Great Plains on their way to Montana while Holly reads him celebrity gossip. Holly tells him they cannot keep living in the wilderness going from town to town. He buries their possessions to show that he is leaving his emotional baggage behind and starting fresh. They keep driving up north and Holly feels a block between them A helicopter comes before he can rob a man of fuel. Holly decides not to escape with Kit. They fire at Kit but he escapes giving Holly a time and place where they will meet again.

Kit fills his gas up again but flees the cops dodging cows on the road speeding away. They shoot at Kit in a car chase all throughout the desert until the cop car flips over. Another group of cops find him and he surrenders. The sheriff asks him if he likes people and Kit says, "They're okay." The the cop asks him," then why did you do it?" Kit says, "I always wanted to be a criminal just not this big of one."

He tells Kit he looks like James Dean which Kit takes as the compliment of the century. He's friendly and confident with the police loving the attention. Kit sees Holly crying not fully realizing she is the only one in the world who loves and cares about him. He is just too self-centered and immature to care. He signs all his arrest papers and is taken away by plane savoring his last moments of fame.