Badlands (1973) on Netflix
Fifteen-year-old Holly Sargis meets Kit Carruthers, a twenty-five-year-old garbage collector and greaser, in her South Dakota town. Her father disapproves, and Kit asks her to run away with him.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.7/1085,516 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
Holly Sargis is fifteen and lives in Fort Dupree, South Dakota, in 1959 with her father, a sign painter; her mother died of pneumonia years earlier. Kit Carruthers is twenty-five, a garbage collector, Korean War veteran and greaser who reminds Holly of James Dean. They fall in love, and her father, who does not approve, kills her dog as a punishment. Kit breaks into the house and insists that Holly run away with him. Her father threatens to phone the police, and Kit shoots him. The two then burn the house to make it look like a suicide before heading for the badlands of Montana.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Badlands (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Malick's first cinematographer, Brian Probyn, quit mid-shoot after balking at the director's unorthodox methods, and was replaced first by Tak Fujimoto and then by Stevan Larner, who finished the film.
- Malick built a sales kit of slides and video tape of actors to present to investors, but said "they didn't pay too much attention to it; they invested on faith"; he paid $25,000 of his own funds and raised the remainder of his share from professionals such as doctors and dentists.
- Malick himself appeared on screen in an uncredited cameo after the actor hired to play the Caller at Rich Man's House failed to show up.
- Sissy Spacek, in only her second film, was the first actor cast, and when Malick found out she had been a majorette he worked a twirling routine into the script.
- Jack Fisk served as art director on the film, and during production he and Sissy Spacek fell in love and were married on April 12, 1974; Fisk and Malick continued to collaborate on the majority of the director's films, including To the Wonder and Knight of Cups.
- Several up-and-coming actors were auditioned for the part of Kit Carruthers, and when the casting director suggested Martin Sheen, Malick was hesitant, thinking he was too old for the role.
- The production was a troubled one: several members of the crew clashed with Malick, and another was severely injured when an explosion occurred while the fire scene was being filmed.
- While the story is fictional, it is loosely based on the real-life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate in 1958.
