Based on a 1958 front-page saga, Terrence Malick's debut film (now a cult classic) is a brilliant update on the theme of outlaw lovers. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek star as Kit and Holly, who shoot Holly's father during a heated argument and take off across Wyoming and Nebraska on a murder spree in which nearly a dozen deaths are coolly inflicted. Robin Wood comments:
“Although it bears a special acknowledgement to Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde), and never quite oversteps the boundaries of the Hollywood narrative tradition, the most important influence on Badlands is the work of Godard (in particular, Les Carabiniers and Pierrot le Fou). One of the most distinguished directorial debuts in the American cinema, Malick's film is especially notable for its highly sophisticated play with verbal and visual narrative, which here counterpoint instead of merely reinforce each other, producing a subtle, idiosyncratic balance between engagement and detachment, complicity and horror.”