Badlands – Zerschossene Träume (1973)

Badlands – Zerschossene Träume: Directed by Terrence Malick. With Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri. An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.

“In January, 1958, nineteen-year-old Charles Starkweather and fourteen-year-old Caril Ann Fugate went on a murder spree in Nebraska and Wyoming. Eleven innocent people died. Most, though not all, of the killings were random. Starkweather and Fugateu0026#39;s story u0026quot;inspiredu0026quot; several films, including this one.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn u0026quot;Badlandsu0026quot;, the pairu0026#39;s names were changed to Kit Carruthers (Martin Sheen) and Holly Sargis (Sissy Spacek), and their ages were altered slightly. From what I have read, Starkweather and Fugate were emotionally detached and casual about the killings, especially Charles, once the initial murders had occurred. Both Sheen and Spacek do a good job of mimicking this nonchalant attitude. At various points throughout the film, Holly narrates the story in an emotionless, monotone voice. Itu0026#39;s like sheu0026#39;s reading a diary of what happened as we, the viewers, watch movie footage of the events.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe filmu0026#39;s title is appropriate, given that the charactersu0026#39; inner lives must surely have been wastelands, and given that the filmu0026#39;s plot takes place mostly outdoors, on the lonesome High Plains, with its brooding and u0026quot;starku0026quot; landscape.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe filmu0026#39;s color cinematography conveys a mood of desolation, especially in those scenes that contain little more than the horizon, expansive blue sky, treeless plains, and a couple of lonely desperados. At one point, the color morphs into sepia-tinted images of small town America, as the whole country, in fear, takes up arms against the fugitives, a photographic change that renders an almost documentary tone to the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFrom time to time, classical background music accompanies the senseless violence, a cinematic contrast so u0026quot;starku0026quot; as to make the film surreal. And, of course, the sequence toward the end where Kit and Holly, with car radio on, dance in the headlights as Nat King Cole sings u0026quot;A Blossom Fellu0026quot;, is truly mournful and haunting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Badlandsu0026quot; is incredibly understated and low-key, as detached as the characters portrayed. Director Terrence Malick conveys a simple, uninvolved story, packaged in a film that makes no effort to communicate either symbolism or thematic depth. Nor does the film render judgments about the characters or events. Itu0026#39;s an approach that probably wouldnu0026#39;t work today. But it is effective, and through the years the film has gradually become more respected as an excellent character study of 1950u0026#39;s teen rebels without a cause.”