Terrence Malick’s debut film Badlands is getting a Blu-ray release on May 2019 courtesy of the Criterion Collection and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, the film was inspired by the notorious Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate killing spree of the late 1950s and uses a serial-killer narrative as a springboard for an oblique teenage romance.
The film also introduced many of the elements that would earn Malick his passionate following: the enigmatic approach to narrative and character, the unusual use of voice-over, the juxtaposition of human violence with natural beauty, the poetic investigation of American dreams and nightmares.
This debut has spawned countless imitations, but none have equalled its strange sublimity.
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Making “Badlands,” a new documentary featuring actors Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek and production designer Jack Fisk
- New interview with editor Billy Weber about director Terrence Malick’s unique approach to editing
- New interview with producer Edward Pressman
- Trailer
- “Charles Starkweather,” a 1993 episode of the television series Great Crimes and Trials, about the real-life story on which the film was loosely based
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda