Badland Essay

1117 Words5 Pages
Introduction Badlands is a movie written and directed by Terrence Mallick in the year 1973. The film is about a killing spree, featuring two teenagers, Kit (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek), who fall in love, murder their old man (Holly’s father) and escape but are later caught up with, much like the true story of Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate. As it were, the film consists of several shots. This write-up details the very first shot which appears at the beginning of the film. The said shot depicts one of the film’s main acts, Holly, in her bedroom. She is sitting on her bed with her pet dog, which is sitting on a blanket folded up (Mallick, 1973). The girl fondly hugs her dog whose name is not mentioned throughout the rest of the movie. This scene is followed almost immediately by the appearance of another of the two main characters, Kit, who discovers a dead dog in the garbage. This shot is quite important in the movie as it sets the scope of the entire film. The script writer must have put the shot at the beginning of the film to help the viewer construct the theme of the movie beforehand, or connect it with the other parts of the film for a better understanding. The above-mentioned shot was almost certainly constructed as it is to draw the interest and curiosity of the viewer in the movie. By positioning it at the very start of the film, Mallick may have wanted to create a connection between the two main characters and their pet dogs which persists for the better part of the film. As already implied, the shot demonstrates Holly’s strong affection towards her dog more than her emotionally withdrawn father. Besides, the shot may have sought to, as already implied, set the theme of the film. This appears true especially seeing that the entire movie revolves around the two teenagers who are fond of dogs, and who end up dead
Open Document