What Terrence Malick's 'Badlands' Says About America

This week: Existential crisis in the heart of America.

Written and edited by me, Julian Rhodes.

All music, images, and clips are used for the purposes of commentary in conjunction with the Fair Use Agreement under U.S. Copyright Law.

[Owen-ubfv]

Martin Sheen definetly foreshadowed shades of Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now during the bounty hunter ambush scene by the treehouse.

[Thet]

Martin Sheen was amazing in this. He never got enough film offer's in my opinion.

[JuliaMinervaRhodes]

Fun fact: my grandfather's cousin went to high school with Terrence Malick. When I went to her house, she showed me pictures of him in her high school yearbook.

[Togutas]

I just found your channel and I'm so happy you chose to touch on my favourite film.

Badlands is the absolute sweet point in Mallicks filmography. Mallick's later films maintain an emotional distance from their characters and choose to focus on the higher concepts. This is one of the key reasons i think a lot of his back catalogue is seen as "pretentious" by a lot of people.

Badlands on the other hand is so far from pretentious. Its a wonderful and genuine story with an almost childlike whimsy and fascination with its setting. Its a film that is very much presented from Holly's innocent perspective. The violence is over with quickly and is not dwelt on and instead the focus turns to the simple pleasures. Because the actions are seen through the lense of holly, the narration makes sense and helps contextualise her actions a bit more.

Its the core relationship, innocence and whimsy that I think draws a lot of people to like the film. It's heavy subject matter but its a purposefully glossy view of it. Its similar to life is beautiful in that sense.

I also like how its a film that gives back as much as you put in. It works as a simple film with not much to say and still holds up when you dig deeper and analyse, just like you did.

I need to get back to work.

[tudorlazescu]

A Badlands review? It must be my birthday!!! 😊😊 thank you, keep up the good work

[godfreyofbouillon]

I wouldnt call it underrated, I've heard nothing but praises about this film. And it deserved every single one of them.

[corbinmarkey]

Badlands was my first Malick film. I watched it during summer vacation between ninth and tenth grade. its staggering beauty and simplicity deeply resonated with me even then.

[lazarus]

Waited for someone to discuss in depth about this movie; thank you!

[robbrothers]

I was hoping you were going to do this film. Thanks. Keep on the good work.

[LivingOnCash]

The Clint Eastwood / Kevin Costner movie "A Perfect World" always reminds me of Badlands. It came out 20 years after and when watching it I was trying to think of what movie it reminded me of. Took me a while to remember. Not sure why these kinds of movies appeal to me so much. Something about the wide open spaces they are set in I guess and the rebellious nature of the characters.

[fascinatinglist]

This video was both entertaining and educational. I was taking notes throughout and excited to have found a platform to study more on films. Great video by the way.

[TedWillingham]

Another great one!

One thing people tend to forget is that Malick briefly taught philosophy at MIT, and actually translated some of Heidegger's works. One very important concept in Heidegger is the notion of "being-towards-death" - where authenticity comes from the felt experience of being a being lodged in time, with a particular historicity, relationship with eternity, and orientation towards a final end (death). This is definitely a theme we can pick out in Malick's work!

Slightly off topic: Heideggerian studies have enjoyed a recent resurgence in AI research, of all places, very much due to Dreyfus' pioneering (and much critiqued) work in the 70's, that is now generally considered to have gotten it right. I'd love to see Malick tackle a sci-fi AI movie from that perspective.

[graysonplumpton]

Bruce Springsteens album "Nebraska" was highly influenced by this movie

[craigdamage]

Malick has made so few films but yet each film he has made has had such a profound impact.

[keithflores]

This movie was filmed in my hometown of Las animas Colorado

[baritony]

My favorite of all Malick's work.

[johnappleby]

So good actually I saw this movie with the two primary women in my life and they both loved it!

[TanyaKatherine]

Absolutely amazing! The points are spot on and I love the analysis. I got excited when you said the point on America, which I picked up on as the main thesis of the movie and wasn't sure if I was right or not! Also loved the point you said about after Kit shot Holly's father, he catapulted both of them into a wasteland of existential pain. Well said! and very cool that your Grandfather's cousin went to high school with Malick! Whoa!

[foxybingo]

Are you going to do Synecdoche New York?

[waltdill]

Have been a fan of this for years. Meditative, poignant and utterly authentic American odyssey. Puts a movie like Natural Born Killers to shame, good as that film is. Sissy Spacek's performance is astonishingly nuanced.