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“Coal Miner’s Daughter”?
Badlands.
!!!
Words can not express how happy this has made me. Easily one of my top 5 films of all time.
This is only a little OT. Years ago, I took my then girlfriend, now wife, to see Eraserhead. She absolutely HATED it. I knew that Sissy Spacek was one of her favorite actresses, and that I had set a trap. She went on an on about how “ridiculous, unredeeming,” etc Eraserhead was–basically a piece of trash. Her expression when I told her that it had been largely funded by Sissy Spacek and her husband(I think)was priceless. She was in disbelief, then acceptance, and, finally, back to defiance–“I don’t care. It’s still a piece of dreck.” Back on topic–I saw Badlands again recently. It’s still a great flick. The tone of the movie is so strong. I don’t remember anything else quite like it.
I have never seen this movie, but it makes me want red hair and freckles just as much as “Anne of Green Gables” did.
DBW – I love Terrence Malick in general, but you are so right – this movie is just rock-solid. It’s amazing how influential it is. So much of it shows up in other films – just the feel of it, the atmosphere – that opening, the two leads. Even the music (which was used in True Romance – another story about a young couple who go on a murderous rampage). There are so many references.
And I just love Spacek and Sheen – they’re just chilling, I think. Because they’re so casual and almost likeable.
It’s really (to me) the look of the film, and the script (her creepy flat-voiced voiceover) that sets it apart.
Oh, and the other thing I noticed for anyone who is familiar with True Romance:
Their first big love scene (in True Romance) which takes place out on the roof, in front of that big billboard …
Spacek’s dad in Badlands (played by the wonderful Warren Oates) is a billboard-sign painter and ther’es a great scene (just the way it LOOKS – Malick is a master) where Sheen goes out to basically talk to Spacek’s dad and reassure him he means no harm to his daugher – it’s in the middle of the plains, all brown and flat – with this huge billboard in the middle of nowhere, and the two of them stand there in front of it – dwarfed by the landscape – but they are also the tallest thing in the landscape – and I immediately thought of True Romance, and that scene in front of the (admittedly urban) billboard.
Really influential film.
Great catch on True Romance and the billboard scene. Hadn’t thought about that. And, yes, the voiceover is creepy, but perfect. When I said “tone,” I really meant all of it–the look, the music, the acting, the voiceover–all of it. No one has played troubled youths, unaware of the real consequences of their actions, and caught up in a momentum of events moving towards the inevitable(even though that momentum moves at a snail’s pace for much of the movie) better than Sheen, Spacek, and Malik.
It really is amazing how much the two of them capture being really deeply – to the core- unthinking people. Deeply unselfaware. And so when he starts to snap, it makes total sense. It doesn’t feel like a big actor-y “ooh, look at me go nuts” – it’s that this guy literally has nowhere to go, and never has.
And you kind of like both of them too – and root for them in a weird way.
I love the opening scenes of her twirling the baton in the street.
Catherine – I love to hear you say that! It really is a stunning movie.