Premise: A young couple go on a murder spree while on the run after killing the girl's father near the Badlands of South Dakota.
I realize the irony of saying this, but it's best to avoid the reviews sometimes. Or, at least save them for afterwards. I knew Badlands was a highly regarded film before I watched it. I avoided looking at reviews and reading about its legacy until afterwards though. Frankly, I'm not sure what movie all these people were watching. A look through the Reception section for the movie on Wikipedia makes it sound like a life-changing, transcendent experience.
I mean. The movie is good. It might be my favorite Terrence Malick movie. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are really good in it. I've never seen Sheen that young and cocky before. The movie looks great. Few rival Malick's appreciation of nature on the screen. I love the brief runtime and how it's still able to be such a patient movie.
It's perplexing though. I get people losing their minds over something as ambitious as The Tree of Life or The Thin Red Line. Sure, I didn't care for those movies as much, but I get that other people could see more in them. Badlands is a pretty lean movie though. It's a little scattered. Malick is clearly still figuring stuff out. Are people really that blown away by it? Oh well, more power to them. I liked the movie. It certainly had a bitchin' treehouse and I appreciated the wry sense of humor.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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