Badlands (15)
"rightly revered as one of the most astonishing debuts in cinema. Its reissue is a wonderful chance to discover why." The Times
Director: Terence Malick
Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek
USA, 1975, 1 hour 34 minutes
Mon 30 March 2.00pm - The Courtyard Hereford
A film of 'visionary realism', Badlands is as psychologically precise as it is visually observant. But it also exudes a mythical, tragic quality that is all the more remarkable for the languorous ease with which its story unfolds. That's partly down to the career-best performances of Sheen and Spacek, the misfit young couple, savage innocents who create a brief idyll but end up leaving a trail of blood through the unforgiving Montana badlands. It's a challengingly non-judgmental work which lulls the viewer into a sublime state of false security, the better to deliver a stunning but gentle essay on freedom and necessity, life and death. This, the first, magnificent, outpouring of Malick's genius, really does merit the term 'classic'.
"an indisputable masterpiece of American cinema." Empire
External Links: Channel 4 Review / Times Review