History Film / Badlands

Holly Sargis (Spacek) is a 15-year-old girl living in a small town in South Dakota in the late 1950s. She meets Kit Carruthers (Sheen), an anti-social young greaser and petty criminal ten years older than Holly who works as a garbageman. Holly's father (Creator/WarrenOates) forbids the relationship. Kit decides to run away with Holly, but when Holly's father interrupts him while he's packing her clothes, Kit impulsively shoots him to death. This begins a cross-country crime spree, as Kit and Holly flee through the badlands of South Dakota and into Montana, with bounty-hunters and police in pursuit.

-->''Kit and I were taken back to South Dakota.''
-->''They kept him in solitary...''
-->''...so he didn't have a chance''
-->''to get to know the other inmates...''
-->''...though he was sure they'd like him,''
-->''especially the murderers.''
-->''Myself, I got off with probation''
-->''and a lot of nasty looks.''
-->''Later, I married the son of the lawyer''
-->''who defended me.''
-->''Kit went to sleep in the courtroom''
-->''while his confession was bein' read...''
-->''...and he was sentenced to die''
-->''in the electric chair.''
-->''On a warm, spring night,''
-->''six months later...''
-->''[[WhamLine ...after donatin' his body to science, he did.]]''

* Cloudcuckoolander: Kit and Holly's sheer detachment to the crimes they commit (such Kit's abrupt murder of Holly's father and Holly's carrying on a casual conversation with Cato whilst he's bleeding to death) make them a particularly disturbing variant of this.

* CloudCuckooLander: Kit and Holly's sheer detachment to the crimes they commit (such Kit's abrupt murder of Holly's father and Holly's carrying on a casual conversation with Cato whilst he's bleeding to death) make them a particularly disturbing variant of this.

Holly Sargis (Spacek) is a 15-year-old girl living in a small town in South Dakota in the late 1950s. She meets Kit Carruthers (Sheen), an anti-social young greaser and petty criminal ten years older than Holly who works as a garbageman. Holly's father forbids the relationship. Kit decides to run away with Holly, but when Holly's father interrupts him while he's packing her clothes, Kit impulsively shoots him to death. This begins a cross-country crime spree, as Kit and Holly flee through the badlands of South Dakota and into Montana, with bounty-hunters and police in pursuit.

''Badlands'' is a 1973 film written and directed by Creator/TerrenceMalick, starring Creator/MartinSheen and Creator/SissySpacek. Holly Sargis (Spacek) is a 15-year-old girl living in a small town in South Dakota in the late 1950s. She meets Kit Carruthers (Sheen), an anti-social young greaser and petty criminal ten years older than Holly who works as a garbageman. Holly's father forbids the relationship. Kit decides to run away with Holly, but when Holly's father interrupts him while he's packing her clothes, Kit impulsively shoots him to death. This begins a cross-country crime spree, as Kit and Holly flee through the badlands of South Dakota and into Montana, with bounty-hunters and police in pursuit.

----

* UnreliableNarrator: There is a dramatic contrast between Holly's dreamily romantic narration of their adventures and the evil, murderous things Kit is actually doing.

''Badlands'' was the first film by writer-director Malick. Creator/OrsonWelles is probably the only other director to make [[Film/CitizenKane as big a splash]] with a debut feature. It was Inspired|By the true-life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate across Nebraska and Wyoming in 1958, which also served as the basis of ''Film/NaturalBornKillers''.

''Badlands'' was the first film by writer-director Malick. Creator/OrsonWelles is probably the only other director to make [[Film/CitizenKane as big a splash]] with a debut feature. It was InspiredBy the true-life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate across Nebraska and Wyoming in 1958, which also served as the basis of ''Film/NaturalBornKillers''.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Holly has a habit of running around barefoot. In her first scene, she's barefoot in her bed, and heads outside just like so. You can tell she has shoes under her bed but she remains barefoot by choice. She spends the start of the movie practicing baton and wandering through her neighborhood barefooted with visibly tarnished feet. What makes her don shoes and socks is when her father gets out some varnish and flicks it at the ground and she squeals when it splatters on her bare feet. She also goes barefoot multiple times while shacked up in the woods with Kit, most noticeable when she dances with him and soaks her feet by the lake. She also doesn't seem to mind being in just socks, as she has her shoes off at rest in a yellow dress while in socks and her shoes are taken away near the end of the movie when she's in custody to prevent her from running away and she seems unbothered with socked feet when she's marched off to a guarded plane.

-->''Kit and I were taken back to South Dakota.

-->''[[WhamLine...after donatin' his body to science, he did.]]''

* DownerEnding: Both Holly and Kit are captured and arrested and sent off to stand trial.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Holly has a habit of running around barefoot. In her first scene, you can tell she has shoes under her bed but she remains barefoot by choice, as she heads outside like so spends the start of the movie practicing baton and wandering through her neighborhood barefooted with visibly tarnished feet (she even squeals when varnish gets splattered on them and later dons shoes and socks as such). She also goes barefoot multiple times while shacked up in the woods with Kit, most noticeable when she dances with him. She also doesn't seem to mind being in just socks, as she has her shoes off at rest in a yellow dress while in socks and her shoes are taken away near the end of the movie when she's in custody to prevent her from running away and she seems unbothered with socked feet when she's marched off to a guarded plane.

* KarmaHoudini: Holly. [[spoiler: She tells us that she married the son of the lawyer who defended her, and "I got off with probation and some harsh looks."]]

''Badlands'' was the first film by writer-director Malick. Creator/OrsonWelles is probably the only other director to make [[Film/CitizenKane as big a splash]] with a debut feature. It was InspiredBy the true-life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate across Nebraska and Wyoming in 1958.

* TheSociopath: Kit, obviously, given the casual and untroubled way he goes about murdering people. But one of the more interesting things about the film is the suggestion that Holly is just as bad a sociopath as Kit is, and maybe worse. There's her narration, which throughout the film casts their story as a fairy-tale romance while Kit is going around murdering people. She shows nothing but DullSurprise as Kit's body count mounts, except for one time when she slaps him after he kills her father. She has an idle and pointless conversation with Cato while a gutshot Cato bleeds to death. And while Kit at least has an emotional connection to her, she doesn't seem to love him that much at all, and she eventually casts him off when she gets bored. As they are living a quiet existence in the woods for a few days following her father's murder, Holly says of Kit:

-> "Suppose I shot you. How'd that be?"
-->--'''Kit Carruthers'''

* TheDyingWalk: Kit shoots his friend Cato InTheBack after he realizes Cato is going to call the cops. Cato, who has taken a shotgun blast that went clean through his gut and out through his belly, gets up, staggers back into his shack, and lies down on his bed to die.
* HilariousInHindsight: Kit [[Series/TheWestWing flips his jacket over his head.]] This really is the way Martin Sheen puts them on, due to his partially paralyzed left arm.

* CreatorCameo: Terrence Malick plays the well-dressed man who calls at the house of the rich man that Kit is holding captive. This is an especially notable cameo since Malick has shunned publicity for most of his life and is rarely photographed.

* CelebrityResemblance: One of the cops who arrests Kit notes that he resembles Creator/JamesDean. Appropriate, given Kit's Dean-style rebelliousness.

* DiesWideOpen: Both Holly's father and the friend that Kit shoots in the back.
* TheDyingWalk: Kit shoots his friend InTheBack after he realizes the buddy is going to call the cops. The buddy, who has taken a shotgun blast that went clean through his gut and out through his belly, gets up, staggers back into his shack, and lies down on his bed to die.

* TheSociopath: Kit, obviously, given the casual and untroubled way he goes about murdering people. But one of the more interesting things about the film is the suggestion that Holly is just as bad a sociopath as Kit is, and maybe worse. There's her narration, which throughout the film casts their story as a fairy-tale romance while Kit is going around murdering people. She shows nothing but DullSurprise as Kit's body count mounts, except for one time when she slaps him after he kills her father. And while Kit at least has an emotional connection to her, she doesn't seem to love him that much at all, and she eventually casts him off when she gets bored. As they are living a quiet existence in the woods for a few days following her father's murder, Holly says of Kit: