DVD Brief: Badlands |
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Description: Terrence Malick's debut film -- about a pair of kids who go on a killing spree in the Midwest in the 1950s -- is just as powerful today as when it was released. The nonchalant way in which Malick distances the viewer from Sheen and Spacek and their killings -- and the lack of gory bloodshed -- underscores the horror of the random brutality. Based on the Charles Starkweather-Carol Fugate murder spree in 1958, the film is a well- wrought character study of alienation and purposelessness and, with Sheen preening himself as a James Dean look-alike, points a seer's finger at the rise of celebrityhood that has permeated our culture. Image: Filmed in South Dakota and drenched in the bright, pure colors of the Midwest. The wide-open spaces of the plains are still wide open on the screen, and the images glow with painterly delight. A wonderful transfer: the image rivals a pristine theatrical print. Sound: Highlighted by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman's exquisite "Musica Poetica," the soundtrack deftly compliments the film's images -- from horror to playfulness and back again. All DVDs are screened on a reference Onkyo DV- S717 third-generation DVD player.
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