Badlands (1973)

Director:

Terrence Malick

Writer:

Terrence Malick (written by)

Release Date:

7 April 1975 (Sweden)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

He was 25 years old. He combed his hair like James Dean. She was 15. She took music lessons and could twirl a baton. For a while they lived together in a tree house. In 1959, she watched while he killed a lot of people.

Plot:

Dramatization of the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1950's, in which a teenage girl and her twenty-something boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands.

Plot Keywords:

Killing Spree | Badlands | Murder | 1950s | James Dean

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins

Cast

Martin Sheen	...	Kit
Sissy Spacek	...	Holly
Warren Oates	...	Father
Ramon Bieri	...	Cato
Alan Vint	...	Deputy
Gary Littlejohn	...	Sheriff
John Carter	...	Rich Man
Bryan Montgomery	...	Boy
Gail Threlkeld	...	Girl
Charles Fitzpatrick	...	Clerk
Howard Ragsdale	...	Boss
John Womack Jr.	...	Trooper
Dona Baldwin	...	Maid
Ben Bravo	...	Gas attendant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Terrence Malick	...	Caller at rich man's house (uncredited)

Directed by
Terrence Malick

Writing credits
Terrence Malick		(written by)

Produced by
Terrence Malick	....	producer
Edward R. Pressman	....	executive producer
Louis A. Stroller	....	associate producer (as Lou Stroller)
Jill Jakes	....	co-producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
George Aliceson Tipton		(as George Tipton)

Cinematography by
Tak Fujimoto		(photography)
Stevan Larner		(photography)
Brian Probyn		(photography)

Film Editing by
Robert Estrin

Casting by
Dianne Crittenden		(as Diane Derfner)

Art Direction by
Jack Fisk

Costume Design by
Rosanna Norton		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Dona Baldwin	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Bill Scott	....	production manager (as William Scott)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
John Broderick	....	assistant director
Carl Olsen	....	assistant director

Art Department
Ken Hilton	....	set dresser
Joan Mocine	....	art work
Edward Richardson	....	associate art director (as Ed Richardson)
Erik L. Nelson	....	property master (uncredited)

Sound Department
Doug Crichton	....	boom operator
Maury Harris	....	production sound mixer
Sam F. Shaw	....	sound effects (as Sam Shaw)
John Wilkinson	....	sound re-recording mixer (as John Wilkenson)
Sharron Miller	....	sound editor (uncredited)

Stunts
George Fisher	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Jack English	....	gaffer
Douglas Knapp	....	best boy (as Doug Knapp)
Anthony R. Palmieri	....	assistant camera (as Tony Palmieri)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Dona Baldwin	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Marion Segal	....	assistant editor
Billy Weber	....	associate editor (as William Weber)

Music Department
Erma E. Levin	....	music editor (as Erma Levin)
George Aliceson Tipton	....	conductor (as George Tipton)

Other crew
Rich Cook	....	production assistant
Gary Littlejohn	....	autos
Paul Marcus	....	production assistant
Penny Richardson	....	production secretary
Connie Lee Stone	....	production assistant

Thanks
Charlotte Jakes	....	thanks
Melvin James	....	thanks
Irvin Kershner	....	thanks
James Nelson	....	thanks
Arthur Penn	....	thanks
Bert Schneider	....	thanks
Wallace Wolf	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Badlands Company
• Jill Jakes Production
• Pressman-Williams

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1973) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1976) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (1995) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1998) (USA) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• American Film Institute (AFI)  thanks
• Cinemobile System  location services
• Consolidated Film Industries (CFI)  processing
• Consolidated Film Industries (CFI)  titles and opticals
• Glen Glenn Sound  sound recording
• People of Otero County  thanks
• Pressman-Williams  presents (as Pressman Williams)
• Warner Communication Company  presents

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:PG | UK:15 (re-rating) (2008) | UK:18 (video rating) | Australia:M (DVD rating) | New Zealand:R16 | Finland:K-15 (re-rating) (2003) | Finland:K-16 (re-rating) (1987) | Ireland:15 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:16 | Finland:K-18 (1980) | Portugal:M/16 (DVD rating) | UK:X (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Colorado, USA

Company:

Badlands Company

Trivia:

The 'Bandlands' plot and lead characters of Kit and Holly are based on Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, who in 1958 embarked on a murder spree that horrified the country.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Although the film takes place in the late 1950s, there is a modern Ford car dealer's sign visible in one shot.

Quotes:

Holly Sargis: One day, while taking a look at some vistas in Dad's stereopticon, it hit me that I was just this little girl, born in Texas, whose father was a sign painter, who only had just so many years to live. It sent a chill down my spine and I thought where would I be this very moment, if Kit had never met me? Or killed anybody...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

Soundtrack:

A BLOSSOM FELL

"Saw her standing on her front porch, just a-twirling her baton..."

The serial killer genre is the most overdone in modern cinema, but director Terrence Mallick took a real life story to make his powerful debut, 'Badlands'. He even toned it down, his interest being not in presenting a picture of pure (and wholly artificial) evil but rather in portraying a wholly human story. Murder is depicted here in all its banality - people shot (off-screen) through locked doors, by a young man acting for wholly normal motives but without the customary restraints on behaviour that we term morals. The result is a haunting, though occasionally pretentious, study of individuals drifting beyond the bounds of civilisation, their physical location (America's still-wild west) symbolically matching their mental isolation. Sissy Spacek is particularly good as the ordinary girl just along for the ride. A fine film, 'Badlands' is also genuinely disturbing, in a way that Hannibal Lector could only dream of.