Badlands (1973)

Directed by Terrence Malick and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, Badlands follows young lovers Kit and Holly as they flee across the American Midwest after Kit begins a violent killing spree. Loosely inspired by the crimes of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, the film combines an outlaw-on-the-run story with an detached, dreamlike portrait of youth and violence. Badlands marked Malick’s feature directing debut.

Criterion Collection

Badlands announced the arrival of a major talent: Terrence Malick. His impressionistic take on the notorious Charles Starkweather killing spree of the late 1950s uses a serial-killer narrative as a springboard for an oblique teenage romance, lovingly and idiosyncratically enacted by Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The film introduced many of the elements that would earn Malick his passionate following: the enigmatic approach to narrative and character, the unusual use of voice-over, the juxtaposition of human violence with natural beauty, the poetic investigation of American dreams and nightmares. This debut has spawned countless imitations, but none have equaled its strange sublimity.