At the end of the film an officer tells Kit (Martin Sheen, never better) “you’re quite an individual” Kit replies “you think they’ll take that into consideration?” This scene really sums up the entire movie because Kit wants to be his own person and wants people to know him. Badlands (1973) is based on the true story of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate (Malick changed the names to Kit and Holly). They went on a shooting spree in the Midwest during the year 1958. Terrance Malick brings this story to life as he writes, produces and directs for the first time at the age of twenty-nine.
It happens all too quickly. I really couldn’t figure out why they loved each other so much. That is the only problem I had with this beautifully shot film. Kit, who is twenty-five, just got of work (he’s a garbage man) and lays eyes on a young red headed girl twirling a baton in her front yard. The girl’s name is Holly (Sissy Spacek) she’s fifteen years old who acts as if she’s more in her twenties. She knows a lot of things that your normal fifteen year old wouldn’t. At first she tells him that she’s forbidden to see him because he’s a garbage man and her father (Warren Oates) doesn‘t approve of that. Kit understands that. The next day he comes back to her house jobless. He quit his job as a garbage man so he can have her in his life.
Other than that, their relationship is every really built upon. They just laid eyes on each other and BOOM they have this relationship going on that has her going along every plan he has. We never see them in a normal conversation, never eating together, or sleeping with one another. Nothing. There’s no foundation or base to the relationship that it wants us to believe is going on.
Kit goes on a shooting spree starting with Holly’s father because he told him he can’t see his daughter. He knows Kit is no good. No good is a tough title but maybe he is just a troubled and lost soul. The same goes for Holly as she lost her mother at an early age and doesn’t have a good relationship with her father. She isn’t even mad when Kit guns him down. Holly might’ve been looking for a “father” figure. Kit is ten years older than she is and really cares for her. The only logic for her is to go with the man who really loves her and is willing to do anything to keep their lone intact.
The story is told in a humble narrative by Holly. She seems so sincere when she talks through the narration. So we have an idea that she makes it out of this fiasco and Kit doesn’t. Their journey is memorable. They can’t live or be seen by the public because there is a huge reward out for them. They go around South Dakota and Montana making their homes in tree shacks. Kit carelessly shoots whoever witnesses their being around.
This being Malick’s first directorial he would follow with only three more movies: Days of Heaven (1976), The Thin Red Line (1998) and The New World (2005) all of which take place in the past and have narration done. His films have your normal and nice people who suddenly turn bad and some kind of switch ticks them off.
The performance that Sheen gives is brilliant and low key. Never once does he go “over the top.” It reminded me of a young Brando or James Dean performance. The way Sheen handled himself was flawless and his way of mumbling words was so Dean like. He also resembled they way he looked and throughout the movie people tell him how much he looks like James Dean.
That was the problem with Kit and why he was so troubled. He wanted people to recognize him and know who he is. When he is taken into an army base a guy asks him how old he is and Kit replies “don’t you read the papers?” That whole scene there is great. As he is handcuffed and begin showed off to the police men and officers Kit has his “15 minutes of fame.” He offers his personal belongings as if though he is some hero as he offers his comb, jacket, and lighter. He wanted to be famous and somebody. In this final scene he doesn’t care that he’s going to be sentenced to death because he’s caught in the moment. He wanted to be a criminal but not this big of a criminal.