Kit and Holly's Adventure

Badlands Dir. Terrence Mallick.

Feat. Sissy Spacek (Holly), Martin Sheen (Kit), Warren Oates (Father).

Warner Brothers, 1973.

As we continue to view celebrity/criminality classics we view Terrence Mallick’s 1973 film Badlands. As Aysia said, and I agreed, this movie is basically the “bootlegged version” most recently view: Bonnie and Clyde. When the term “Bootlegged” comes to mind, I think of something that is trying to portray something else, but fails to do so. Sometime bootlegged versions are awful, sometimes they are not. I would say that Badlands was not a terrible movie.

It was similar to Bonnie and Clyde based off of a few factors. In the beginning of both movies, both female characters (Bonnie and Holly) meet a “dreamy” guy who wants to runaway with them. Shortly after both male characters “explain” that they are not interested in the girls just for sex, but I think Kit kind of wanted some from Bonnie. Shortly after the movie began, Kit and Holly had sex in the woods. Furthermore, they eventually engage in a murder spree and eventual runaway. Both duos killed several innocent people along their journey. Bear in mind, these people did not know who the heck the fugitives were. Bonnie and Clyde killed a few police officers along the way; Kit and Holly killed a man in his own home, and a couple who they stuffed in a tornado shelter.

There were also some very large differences, between the two movies. Bonnie and Clyde were so into running away with each other, and were almost inseparable. That is different between Holly and Kit because most often Holly was very hesitant as to if she wanted to continue on their runaway. She kept asking to go home to Mama. Kit and Holly were very independent and did not want anyone accompanying them, but Bonnie and Clyde had a few. C.W., Buck, and Blanche (who I hated) all went along with Bonnie and Clyde. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two movies was in regards to the way they were caught. First off Kit and Holly were not together when the chase was over; Kit was by himself. Also Kit and Holly were captured alive, and extradited back to face a judge. On the contrast, Bonnie and Clyde were shot to death by multiple sheriff's. Bonnie was shot 26 times and Clyde was shot 17.

Overall, Badlands is a movie that I would more than less likely watch again. I am into the older movies and shows that involve criminality (Hawaii 5.0, and Walker Texas Ranger.) As I stated, this movie also had a lot of action to go along with it; I was often guessing what was going to happen next. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes something old and country western, because let's face it none of what went on in Badlands would happen today.