BADLANDS

USA, 1973

Director: Terrence Malick

Production: Pressman-Williams Enterprises; CFIC colour, 35mm; running time: 94 minutes.

Producer: Terrence Malick; executive producer: Edward R. Pressman; screenplay: Terrence Malick; assistant directors: John Broderick, Carl Olsen; photography: Tak Fujimoto, Brian Probyn, Stevan Larner; editor: Robert Estrin; associate editor: William Weber; art directors: Jack Fisk, Ed Richardson; sound editor: James Nelson; music: George A. Tipton; costumes: Rosanna Norton.

Cast: Martin Sheen (Kit Carruthers); Sissy Spacek (Holly); Warren Oates (Holly's Father); Ramon Bieri (Cato); Alan Vint (Deputy); Gary Littlejohn (Sheriff); John Carter (Rich Man); Bryan Montgomery (Boy); Gail Threlkeld (Girl).

Publications

Books:

Thompson, D.K, in Magill's Survey of Cinema, Second Series, vol.1 edited by Frank Magill, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1981.

Peary, Danny, Cult Movies, New York, 1981.

Williams, Mark, Road Movies, New York, 1982.

Articles:

Variety (New York), 10 October 1973.

Monaco, J., Take One (Montreal), January 1974.

Buckley, M., Films in Review (New York), April 1974.

Johnson, William, Film Quarterly (Berkeley), Spring 1974.

Kinder, Marsha, "The Return of the Outlaw Couple," in Film Quarterly (Berkeley), Summer 1974.

King, M., "Badlands; shoot first. . ." in Jump Cut (Chicago), May-June 1974.

Rosenbaum, J., Monthly Film Bulletin (London), November 1974.

Gow, G., Films and Filming (London), December 1974.

Combs, R., Sight and Sound (London), Winter 1974–75.

Walker, B., "Malick on Badlands" in Sight and Sound (London), Spring 1975.

Ciment, Michel, "Entretien avec Terrence Malick" in Positif (Paris), June 1975.

Sineux, M., "Un cauchemar de douceur" in Positif (Paris), June 1975.

Martin, M., Ecran 75 (Paris), July-August 1975.

Rabourdin, D., Cinéma (Paris), July-August 1975.

Béhar, H., "La ballade sauvage" in Image et Son (Paris), September 1975.

Henderson, B., "Exploring Badlands" in Wide Angle (Baltimore), 1983.

Mooney, J. "Martin Sheen in Badlands," Movieline (Escondido, California), vol. 6, December 1994.

Stein, Michael Eric, "The New Violence or Twenty Years of Violence in Films: An Appreciation," Films in Review (New York), vol. 46, January/February 1995.

Twenty-eight year old Terrence Malick's sublime debut as writer/producer/director of Badlands, has endured through time to foster admiration from, and satisfaction for, the spectator, as it did upon its release in 1973. Perhaps Malick's career as a philosophy teacher before entering filmmaking provided a foundation to the clarity of his vision in this work.

Kit Carruthers (Martin Sheen), a garbage collector, meets Holly Sargis (Sissy Spacek) as he walks past her front lawn. She is practicing baton twirling and is charmed by his apparent worldliness. The banal cynicism of the midwest setting and the sleepy pace are disrupted as Kit murders Holly's father because he disapproves of their relationship.

This is the beginning of Kit's killing spree from South Dakota to finally, the badlands of Montana. Kit ultimately surrenders to the authorities, basking in their admiration of him and his legendary wild man status. Holly has realized that she no longer wants to be around the "hell bent type anymore," and has abandoned Kit just prior to his arrest.

Both repellent and magnetic, Malick draws us into the world of Kit, whose subsequent violent journey is intoned through the sporadic ethereal narration of Holly.

Through the brilliantly droll script we become disassociated from Kit's violence and rather, feel sympathy for the dysfunctional protagonist. This reflects Holly's own journey with Kit and her observation at one point, "The world seemed like a faraway planet." From Holly's father's attempts to keep her away from Kit—"He said if the piano didn't keep me off the streets maybe the clarinet would"—to Holly's reaction to sex—"Gosh, what was everyone talkin' about?"— Malick's writing shines throughout. On second or third viewing of this film the dialogue seems to increase in its hilarity and enunciates Kits and Holly's childlike naivety and stupidity.

Although Malick used three photographers, all with diverse filmic backgrounds, there remains visual fluidity and continuity throughout Badlands. The visual style achieves harmony with the emotional framework, objective, yet intensely intimate. George Tipton's score, with its fairground music quality, reinforces the innocence of the piece whilst underpinning the malevolence of Kit.

Badlands is a masterful work and fully deserves the many accolades that have been awarded to it.

—Marion Pilowsky

badlands The word ‘badlands’ originated in North America, where extensive areas of badlands occur in the north-western Great Plains, such as in Badlands National Monument, South Dakota, and Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. It seems likely that early French explorers in this region translated Plains Indian descriptions of these areas into the phrase ‘les mauvaises terres á traverser’ meaning ‘land bad (hard) to cross’. In fact, badlands occur in a wide range of environments, and on various materials, from marine silts in valleys of the Canadian Arctic to mine-spoil heaps in New Guinea. Badlands can, therefore, form as purely natural landscapes or as human-created features resulting from unwise agricultural or industrial practices.

Badlands are usually associated with arid or semi-arid regions where occasional intense rainstorms cause highly erosive rainsplash and run-off on exposed, weak rock surfaces. Erosion rates in excess of 20 mm a year have been recorded in some badlands. Relatively impermeable sedimentary rocks, such as mudstones and clay-cemented sandstones, are particularly susceptible to such rapid erosion and most badlands develop on such materials. Generally, the infertile nature of the rock and the rapid erosion inhibit the establishment of a vegetation cover and the landscape becomes a barren, often spectacular, and seemingly impenetrable maze of deep winding gullies, steep sharp-crested slopes, and an assortment of weirdly shaped hoodoos, rills, and tunnels. The steep slopes are often scarred by a network of closely spaced rills, which form as a result of rainstorm run-off. Rill incision deepens downslope as rills amalgamate into larger channels to form gullies. Wind may assist the processes of badland formation by removing fine grains and causing minor sandblasting effects.

While surface erosion caused by water can produce dramatic landscapes in many badlands, a considerable amount of subsurface erosion in the form of tunnels can also occur. Sedimentary rocks such as mudstones often contain a variety of clay minerals, including swelling clays such as bentonite. The swell–shrink effects of these clays, resulting from alternate wetting and drying, creates deep desiccation cracks which help to channel surface flow underground (see subsurface flow and erosion). Extensive subsurface drainage networks may develop, producing an effect that resembles, in some respects, the caves and shafts that form by chemical solution in limestones. In badlands, however, solution processes are minor and tunnel systems are almost entirely erosional in origin as the rock particles are washed away. The tunnels become enlarged and their sides and roofs collapse to form gullies which, in turn, direct flow into newly forming tunnels in a complex interlinked surface and subsurface drainage system.

Ian A. Campbell

BADLANDS

BADLANDS, an area in southwestern South Dakota where water and frost have carved prehistoric river sediments and volcanic ash into pinnacles and other fantastic geological formations. Arikara Indians frequented the area in the 1700s; Lakotas arrived around 1775. Frustrated French fur traders labeled the severely eroded formations "bad lands to traverse," and the term "badlands" came to describe any area with similarly eroded topography. In the 1840s, scientific societies, museums, and educational institutions began unearthing the Badlands' paleontological treasures: fossils of piglike oreodonts, rhinoceros-sized titanotheres, and prehistoric camels, horses, and tigers. By the 1890s, with the Lakotas confined to reservations (including the Pine Ridge reservation immediately to the south), ranchers—and later, farmers—occupied the Badlands, but neither thrived. In 1939 the federal government reserved part of the area as a national monument and built highways for tourists. The reserve area was enlarged in 1968 and became a national park in 1978.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hall, Philip S. Reflections of the Badlands. Vermilion: University of South Dakota Press, 1993.

Hauk, Joy Keve. Badlands: Its Life and Landscape. Interior, S. Dak.: Badlands Natural History Association, 1969.

DoaneRobinson/w. p.

See alsoGreat Plains ; Sioux .

badlands area of severe erosion, usually found in semiarid climates and characterized by countless gullies, steep ridges, and sparse vegetation. Badland topography is formed on poorly cemented sediments that have few deep-rooted plants because short, heavy showers sweep away surface soil and small plants. Depressions gradually deepen into gullies. The term badlands was first applied to the arid, dissected plateau region of SW South Dakota by Native Americans and fur trappers who found the area difficult to cross. South Dakota's Big Badlands, also known as the Badlands of the White River, are the world's best and most extensive (c.2,000 sq mi/5,180 sq km) example of this topography. Gullies have cut as deep as 500 ft (152 m) below the plateau's surface, and differences in rock type have created colorful and spectacular formations. The Big Badlands are famous for fossils of prehistoric animals. Badlands National Park, 242,756 acres (98,316 hectares), (authorized as a national monument in 1929, designated a national park in 1978) occupies most of the region. The park is noted for its scenery, its fossils of prehistoric animals, and its varied wildlife, including bison, bighorn sheep, deer, antelope, and prairie dogs. See National Parks and Monuments (table).

Badlands, South Dakota/USA A national park since 1978 called Mako Sica ‘Land Bad’ by the Oglala Sioux. Without vegetation and little natural life, it is a rocky, desolate area of canyons and gullies, cliffs, and buttes. French Canadian fur trappers called it Les mauvaises terres à traverser ‘The bad lands to cross’.

badlands Eroded, barren plateau in an arid or semi-arid area characterized by steep gullies and ravines. Because of the lack of adequate vegetation (due to climate or human intervention), the rainwater runs off very quickly and erodes soft and exposed rock. The best-known examples are the badlands of sw South Dakota and nw Nebraska, USA.

badlands The name originally applied to the intricately eroded plateau country of South Dakota, Nebraska, and North Dakota, but now widened to refer to any barren terrain that has been similarly intensively dissected. It is most common in areas of infrequent but intense rainfall and little vegetation cover.

badlands A term originally applied to the intricately eroded plateau country of southern Dakota, Nebraska, and northern Dakota, but now widened to refer to any barren terrain that has been similarly dissected. It is most common in areas of infrequent but intense rainfall and little vegetation cover.

badlands Term originally applied to the intricately eroded plateau country of S. Dakota, Nebraska, and N. Dakota, but now widened to refer to any barren terrain that has been similarly intensively dissected. It is most common in areas of infrequent but intense rainfall and little vegetation cover.

bad·lands / ˈbadˌlandz/ • pl. n. extensive tracts of heavily eroded, uncultivable land with little vegetation.

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