The Social Network needs no introducing at this point. Click on the poster to read my extended thoughts on it.
Badlands is a nearly-thirty-year-old movie directed by the decidedly non-prolific Terence Malick, whose movies are universally amazing. “Amazing” is an over-used word, but in this case it’s accurate. Malick’s movies show a humanist worldview. He has a historian’s ability to bring the past to life, and a naturalist’s fascination in the beauty of the natural world. Badlands tells a fictionalized version of a true-crime event from the 1950s, a series of murders by a young killer (Martin Sheen) and his teenaged girlfriend (Sissy Spacek). If it weren’t for the famed decades-long career of its two leads, the presence of the much-missed Warren Oates, and the slight agedness of the still-stunning photography, the movie would feel as fresh and as contemporary as it must have when it was first released.
If you haven’t seen Badlands yet, you’ve got to.
