Why does it have such a big cult following (apparantly). I've just watched this and found it boring and pointless. I really don't understand why people rated this movie so highly.
shareyeah i also found it boring, and holly's naration worsen it...
maybe i need a rewatch
The stark reality of the Badlands,mirrored the empty lives of these two people.Set to stirring, beautiful music.Visually a great movie!
shareThats the way i see it.
shareAgreed. Great performances too. I don't know if most people would agree, but I thought Sheen and Spacek were magnificent in their roles.
Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Criedshare
maybe you and blueeyes who dislike the movie are as "dim-witted" as the 2 characters in the movie! lol
sharepretty boring.
loved the new world. thin red line and days of heaven were pretty good too. but this . . . just not that interesting.
Malick made a killing spree seem boring and mundane. Some might see that as a shortcoming. I think he pulled off an incredible feat.
shareAfter thinking about it I agree. Boring and mundane are good words to describe the feeling. And what better words to describe a film narrated by a character who seems completely devoid of any emotion or empathy? The killing spree probably was very boring and mundane for her.
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Did not find it boring but I'm a cerebral fellow.
In spite of that, could you not find beauty, interest and value in the stunning landscape scenery?
I think it's a terrific film with a powerful, disturbing message. The final scenes, after Kit is captured, do a great job of showing the absurdity of how we turn people like Kit into a form of celebrity. I also think it shows that by doing so, it can lessen--or completely do away with--any remorse or regret the criminal may have felt beforehand.
I definitely don't think the film is a "complete waste of time," as you put it.
Blueeyes, it took me a few viewings to realize that Badlands is actually a deadpan, dark comedy in the spirit of Fargo. Try watching it again, and you might be surprised how much of the ostensibly dull dialogue is actually quite funny. Here are a few examples:
KIT: I got him in the stomach.
HOLLY: Was he upset?
KIT: He didn't say anything to me about it.
KIT(finishing suicide recording): That's it. That's all I have to say. (Long, awkward pause.) Thank you.
CATO laughs hysterically at lame joke that HOLLY just told.
KIT: Ain't that funny?
CATO (stops laughing immediately and mumbles): Yeah, I guess.
Maybe the biggest laugh is in the closing credits, when the filmmakers assure us that Badlands is a work of fiction, and any relationship between these characters and any real-life figures is purely coincidental. Uh, right.
I agree with you about the closing credits.
What an insult to everyones intelligence,
HELLO, IT'S BASED ON A FU*KING TRUE STORY!!!
No, it's brilliant because it's so brutal. I didn't like Holly or Kit, didn't agree with their actions, wasn't moved by the narration, don't agree that Malick had any visual aspirations. I found the imagery as seething and corrupted as Holly and Kit were on the inside. Malick evokes these states so remarkably well that any external beauty that might have been there was lost. I didn't find that Kit looked anything like James Dean either. He looked like a cold hearted killer.
"We must get beyond passions, like a great work of art. In such miraculous harmony."
Oh, I thought you hated this film, Pumpkin.
Yeah, Sissy Spacek's romanticised memories are completely at odds with what Malick shows us. But it's not only the image of a "James Dean rebel" that's being parodied. At one point Sheen says, "Consider the minority opinion, but try to get along with the majority opinion once it's accepted." It's a rediculous line, but the point is, he's precisely not a rebel. He is not Brando in "The Wild One" rebelling against "whatever you got". He kills a poor man but lets a rich man live. He hooks up with a whacky ugly girl. Both of them are completely deluded.
All the "gangster" films of that time were like this. I think "Thieves Like Us" and "Sugarland Express" were all released the same year as "Badlands". All of them deconstruct the fantasy image of the gangster couple. Maybe this was a reponse to the populatrity of "The Godfather". I don't know.
"Rape is no laughing matter. Unless you're raping a clown."
The majority opinion in the gangster movie tradition is "There's only one rule: You save your own a$$". It can't be accepted because to save your own a$$ you constantly have to be competitive, violent, disloyal etc... It's the pathology of the environment that feeds into those whose psychology and code of ethics are already aberrant and easily bent. Circumstances are never condoned as an acceptable stimulus. Kit quits his garbage collection job only because he wants a change, while Holly has a reasonable father. They rebel by synthesising their options: using fantasy to make sense of the reality, using the violence of capitalism to kill other innocents, and idealizing cultural role models (James Dean).
I would think all gangster movies deconstruct the fantasy image of the couple. "Badlands" doesn't wait until its end to do it. That's why the mooted electric chair sentence doesn't hit home or offer a genuine catharsis. The film foregrounds the violence by making it as austere and disturbing as possible from the start. The adventure is not as fun. The Kits of the world are still alive at the end.
"We must get beyond passions, like a great work of art. In such miraculous harmony."
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Badlands is not a "youth rebellion movie" in any social - or other - sense. Carruthers may have attempted to fake some trendy rebellion a la Jimmy Dean, but had hard time even convincing himself of that. The only thing he actually rebelled against was the perceived oppression of time and his status as a total nobody... and as such, the film is not pointless by a long shot. As a matter of fact, the woefully overrated vaudeville Bonnie & Clyde is nowhere near the same league as Badlands.
Don´t make much sense to compare it to Godfather though as they´re completely different films. Both are rather perfect as they stand.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Two anomalies with your post that should change your thesis a little. First, Kit is fired from the garbage collector job. Second, Holly's father if Holly's father is reasonable for shooting her dog right in front of her, then I'd question your ability to judge what is reasonable and what is not.
Nope ,,,google the real story. Totally different than this movie
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