For Criterion’s “Songbook” column: I wrote about the use of Mickey & Sylvia’s “Love is Strange” in Terrence Malick’s Badlands: The Hot-Blooded Love Cry at the Cold Heart of Badlands.
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That dance under the tree house is mesmerizing. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Sissy Spacek? Her detachment is solid as a stone wall, her hair hiding most of her face like a medieval helmet. The way he is dancing around her reminds me of Rapunzel in her tower and he’s the knight or prince looking for a way in to her. This song is really perfect for this because it has that very lazy, “I don’t really care” tempo except for that one growling “lover” – so strange. I can’t say I’ve ever seen this movie. I was 12 when it came out and my parents were firm believers in TV and movie censorship. We might have to have a serial killer movie night and watch this.
You know how there are movies that you see on the TV guide lineup and you have to just drop everything else and switch to that movie even if there’s only 10 minutes left? For some unexplainable reason “Coal Miner’s Daughter” is that movie for me – and it’s not because of Loretta Lynn, its Sissy Spacek.
Thanks for posting this, Sheila.
Melanie – ha! Love your comment! Sissy Spacek is so wonderful! This is one of her best. It’s a very disturbing movie -and once you see it you’ll see how every other killers-on-the-run movie steals from it.
And yes, the way they dance AROUND each other in this … it’s just so interesting. Such a short little scene but it says so much!
So I get my Criterion email today and scroll down and see the photo of Martin and Sissy from Badlands and while I’m an original fan of the film I’m actually tired of reading about it, critics and writers love to write about it and it seems I’ve read them all, so I really just clicked on to see a larger version of the photo which looked cool. The page opened on the first paragraph for some reason instead of the top so I just started reading and got sucked in so fast it wasn’t even funny. After a couple minutes my mind was racing and I was really fired up, and I’m proud of myself because then it hit me “this has to be Sheila!” so I scrolled back up to the top to verify but I really didn’t need to because nobody in the world could have written that! Nobody can get to the essence of why something is great while also covering so much more than the film, or book, or song, or anything really that you decide to write about. The way you can pick the perfect quotes from various places to support your themes and help the trader better understand is amazing then how you always bring it all together in the end is so big I guess it’s just a natural gift and always feels like it’s a great unexpected bonus to me. You’re the best friend a movie ever had. I know I’m sounding like a serious fanboy but I don’t give a damn because I am and I think it’s warranted! I picture a serious film professor reading this essay to his class and when he finishes he runs over to his computer furiously pounding on the keyboard as a puzzled student asks “Are you looking up stuff about other Malick films?” “Of course not, looking for more O’Malley!”
Andy
Oh Andy you are too too kind. I love that you guessed it was me!! I am so thankful for your comments and so glad that you like my work. It means the world to me. And Elvis brought us together!!
Thank you again. I know what you mean about BADLANDS. It’s been written about a million times – when I pitched this piece, I thought, “Let’s talk about that one tiny scene which lasts … 30 seconds?? Let’s talk about the song ONLY.” It was fun to kind of focus the conversation on one tiny element.