Badlands is a 1973 drama loosely based on the story of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. Starkweather went on a murder spree between December 1957 and January 1958, with Fugate by his side.
In Badlands, Sissy Spacek plays Holly, our 15 year old narrator, who lives with her father in a small town in South Dakota. She's a shy, lonely girl low in confidence, often ignored by her cold father. One day she meets Kit, a James Dean wannabe ten years her senior, who is kind to her. Kit is isolated in his own way, as he has no real friends and gets no respect in his Job. Thus, the two proTAGonists are bored and apathetic in their lives. They meet in secret, and eventually fall in love. Her father is furious when he finds out, and insists on extra music lessons to keep her away from him. Kit doesn't like being kept away from Holly, prominent him to shoot her father dead, and then hiding him in the baseMent. Holly doesn't cry over it, merely slaps Kit over the face. With nowhere to go, Kit decides they must leave. He records his confession and leaves it at the scene of the crime. He sets fire to the house, and then they drive into the night. We see the house go up in flames, with furniture and Food resisting to the fire, perhaps symbolic of Holly's old life dying.
Charlie Sheen
Kit and Holly drive north, but when they encounter person who seems suspicious, paranoid Kit gets trigger happy, and they leave the scenes knowing they can't run forever. They live in a tree house for a time, stay with Kit's friend and even rob a house for Food, fearing they would be recognised in supermarkets.
We never learn too much about Kit or how he feels about doing something as drastic as shooting someone, as Holly remains mostly naive in her narration. She sees him as the charming love of her life, and is seems indifferent to his appetite for killing. Holly appears to admire his wish to eventually be caught and reprimanded, as they both know the driving has to stop soon. perhaps if Kit narrated the story we would get some insight into the mind of a sociopath, and his thinking behind killing people. The story told by Holly almost romanticises their circumstances, as she fully believes that he needs her beside him. Her narration doesn't correspond with their situation, as she is aloof to the harm Kit inflicts on others. It presents us with a female view on Bonnie and Clyde style murders, as Holly sees no evil in Kit, more that he wants to leave his mark in history.
The setting for the movie, miles of uninterrupted prAirie far from civilised towns, picturesque with the sun setting over it, could be a metaphor for Holly's initial loneliness, as the two drive through uninhabited land with only each other for company. Neither of them show remorse for the deaths, or seem aware of the blatant violation of morals, as Holly's sense of right and wrong become blurred by her love for Kit. His arrogance is clear when Holly tells us that he wants a girl beside him until the end so that if he dies, person will scream his name. He's a walking oxymoron, boasting the importance of education and clean streets, yet can shoot person in cold blood without a second thought.
Badlands is a great movie, that focuses more on the waning relationship of two outcasts, rather than glorifying murder or showing gratuitous violence. The movie could have really been made into a sinister crime thriller, which would have been interesting, but instead the director successfully chose the underdog route of making it more about the citizen involved. It would have felt a bit vacant without Holly's narration, as she ineffectively tries to justify their situation. It's a beautifully scenic and tragic film, that gets level to the point with its motives. Holly and Kit are devoid of emotion for the most part, and remain this way until the end. If you're a huge fan of True Romance like me, you'll consideration how it found inspiration in Badlands: the soothing musical score, narration by the lonely Southern girl, and the factory of a integrate on the run. If you're fond of Spacek and Sheen, then their representation of a young integrate on a murder spree will do nothing short of impress you. It's an absorbing look into the personalities of two citizen ignored by society, who find solace in each other in spite of their circumstances.
Badlands (1973)
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