Sunday
Sep122010
71 - Take a Trip Through the 'Badlands'
Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 7:15PM If you had to pick your favorite Terrence Malick film starring Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, and Warren Oates which would you pick?
That's right! You'd pick 'Badlands'!
This Bonnie and Clyde style crime romance really took us by surprise, and we're hoping it's one you like, if you like films like 'True Romance' that is.
Also, this is probably the least creepy Sissy Spacek character you'll ever see...
Direct Episode Download (187MB)
Reader Comments (1)
It's puzzling to hear film lovers speak so nastily toward Malick as he is typically revered as a god-like presence, and his anti-war spin on The Thin Red Line became especially relevant once we became embroiled in the Iraq debacle (and you could see echoes of this sort of approach in a film like Jarhead). Days of Heaven is often spoken of as one of the most amazingly shot films of all time, and both it and The Thin Red Line are both recently released on blu ray, so maybe with the background of appreciating the mood rather than plot oriented narration of Badlands will give you a new angle into the style he carries through his three subsequent films. If you haven't seen The Thin Red Line in a while, then I think you may see a completely different film this time around. If nothing else, it is one of the most staggeringly beautiful films I have ever seen. There is also quite a bit of interesting trivia surrounding The Thin Red Line, stuff which will astound you in terms of how willing to discard material that he had already shot in order to achieve the tone he sought. I cringe whenever someone uses the term 'pretentious', as all filmmakers are artists generously donating their talents for the benefit of others, about as unpretentious as you can get. That Malick is notorious for devoting years to editing his films is evidence not of pretension but of extreme generosity, if you ask me. In other news, I completely agree with your moratorium on von Trier. Not so sure about the French, although like any country it depends on your selections.