The place for recommendations and reviews of classic films, be they well known or little known, usually of the horror or cult classic variety.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Badlands (1973)
Terence Malick has only directed six movies in the last 40 years, and Badlands (1973) was his first film. The film is based on a real life murder spree committed by the young couple of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate while travelling across the US in the 1950s. All of Terence Malick's films are critically acclaimed with very little to no negative reviews and I won't break the chain. Martin Sheen (father of Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez) and Sissy Spacek (the Original Carrie) are great in their respective roles: Sheen as a mentally delusional trigger happy emotionless anton Shugar (No Country For Old Men)-like character, who is simultaneously a James Dean lookalike/wannabe and mixed up youth, and Spacek as the mixed up naive 15 year old Sheen takes along on his ride. The film is beautiful visually, shot in the Badlands of South Dakota, and in telling it's story: the murders and murderers are not glorified, rather we see how delusional sheen's character is and the rise and fall of his relationship with Spacek as she realizes how crazy he really is. Think Bonnie & Clyde with Bonnie being a whole lot less involved. The film is now part of the Criterion Collection. I give it a 5/5. You can view the trailer below I recommend stopping around 2:02 though, because the rest of the trailer is pretty revealing of the rest of the movie:
Terence Malick has only directed six movies in the last 40 years, and Badlands (1973) was his first film. The film is based on a real life murder spree committed by the young couple of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate while travelling across the US in the 1950s. All of Terence Malick's films are critically acclaimed with very little to no negative reviews and I won't break the chain. Martin Sheen (father of Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez) and Sissy Spacek (the Original Carrie) are great in their respective roles: Sheen as a mentally delusional trigger happy emotionless anton Shugar (No Country For Old Men)-like character, who is simultaneously a James Dean lookalike/wannabe and mixed up youth, and Spacek as the mixed up naive 15 year old Sheen takes along on his ride. The film is beautiful visually, shot in the Badlands of South Dakota, and in telling it's story: the murders and murderers are not glorified, rather we see how delusional sheen's character is and the rise and fall of his relationship with Spacek as she realizes how crazy he really is. Think Bonnie & Clyde with Bonnie being a whole lot less involved. The film is now part of the Criterion Collection. I give it a 5/5. You can view the trailer below I recommend stopping around 2:02 though, because the rest of the trailer is pretty revealing of the rest of the movie: 
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