Love Hurts: Badlands
This month we’re celebrating the beautiful misery of being in love and all the pitfalls that come with it.
In this hallmark of ’70s independent cinema Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek play Kit and Holly, young lovers in 1950s South Dakota who go on the run across the American West, committing a string of murders along the way.
Director Terrance Malick’s debut film overflows with lyrical visual motifs that juxtapose gestures of horrendously casual brutality against the expansively beautiful natural landscapes of the titular region. The result is a genuinely singular take on the cinematic tradition of lovers on the run, a hauntingly gorgeous American nightmare whose images and characters have left an indelible trace on the history of American cinema.