Badlands – Classic 1973 Feature Film Directed by Terrence Malick

Dr. Susan Turner has approximately 15 years of experience as a psychiatrist in New York City. A lover of classic literature and film, Dr. Susan Turner particularly enjoys the 1973 movie Badlands.

The debut of celebrated director Terrence Malick, Badlands is a loose retelling of a true story centered on Charles Starkweather, a teenager who embarked on a killing spree in the Midwest in the late 1950s. Starring Martin Sheen as Starkweather surrogate Kit and Sissy Spacek as his teenage girlfriend, Holly, the film stands out for its originality and distinctly American feel.

Badlands opens in a small town where Kit, who is 25 and has just quit his job collecting garbage, meets Holly. Not long after, Kit has killed Holly’s father and set her home on fire, a turn of events to which Holly reacts with strange indifference. From there, the film presents a lyrical portrait of a young couple fleeing across South Dakota and into the Badlands of Montana.

While nominally a crime film, Badlands separates itself from other movies in the genre with its impressionism and droll sublimity. The feature introduced many aspects of Malick’s filmmaking that have built the director a rabid following, such as his unique use of voice-over narration and his eloquent examination of the American psyche.

Badlands received the honor of closing the New York Film Festival at the time of its release. In the years since, it has earned rave retrospective reviews from critics and garnered a place in the Criterion Collection.