Badlands

Director Terrence Malick's 1973 first film draws on the true story of serial killer Charles Starkweather and 14-year-old Caril Ann Fugate, who together terrorized Nebraska and the Midwest in 1958. Martin Sheen plays Kit, the unstable 25-year-old with a James Dean swagger and a vague need to make his mark on the world, who kills the father (Warren Oates) of his teenage girlfriend, Holly (Sissy Spacek), and then hits the road with her in a doomed romantic idyll. Beautifully shot on the American plains, Badlands contrasts the matter-of-fact killings by the impenetrable and increasingly unpredictable Kit with the banal narration delivered by Holly in a hopelessly romantic tenor. Kit never explains himself and doesn't seem to understand either his actions or his sense of dissatisfaction, and the utter meaninglessness of his acts creates the real horror in this anything-but-romantic take on the “criminal couple on the road” genre. One of the great debuts in American cinema, Badlands is re-mastered here for a new DVD and Blu-ray debut by Criterion from a restored 4K digital transfer, with extras including a new retrospective documentary, cast and crew interviews, a 1993 profile of Starkweather, and a booklet featuring an essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)