Despite popular belief, Badlands was not actually the first screenplay that Terrence Malick wrote; in fact he had previously worked as a screenwriter on a movie called Money in 1972, and again on his own screenplay Deadhead Miles the same year; in fact is was this experience that led him to both produce and direct his third completed screenplay, Badllands; when Paramount made such a horrendous job of transforming Deadhead Miles into an actual film that it could never actually be released. Together with his brother, Chris, Malick raised three hundred thousand dollars for pre-production costs, with the shortfall being met by independent producer Edward R. Pressman.
When asked at the time, Malick claimed that any resemblance in the film to characters alive or dead was entirely coincidental, but this was not entirely true. The two protagonists in the movie, Holly Sturgis, a fourteen year old stuck in a dead-end town, and her older teen boyfriend, a restless James Dean wannabe, Kit Carruthers, are based upon two real-life teenage spree killers whose murderous rampage across Nebraska and Wyoming inspired not only this film, but several others as well, including Kalifornia and Natural Born Killers. Charles Raymond Starkweather and Caril Ann Sturgis killed eleven people between December 1957 and January 1958, and their story gave Malick the idea for a story of his own.
The movie stars Martin Sheen as Kit Carruthers and Sissy Spacek as Holly Sturgis; in particular, the matter-of-fact coldness of Spacek's performance drew in critical acclaim even from those critics who really had not enjoyed the movie as a whole very much. An interesting point of note within the cast list is the appearance of Martin Sheen's two sons, Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen, playing Boy Leaning On Lamppost One and Boy Leaning On Lamppost Two respectively, although their names were not actually credited onscreen. Malick himself added a fourth string to his bow by also appearing in the film in an uncredited role (Man In Doorway).
The production was fraught with difficulty and this was largely due to Malick's habit of micro-managing every task involved in the making of a film. for example, he chose to involve himself in editing of the film after disliking the original edit completed by Bob Esin, whom he fired and replaced with Billy Weber, whom he retained as a long-time collaborator on all of his movies until 2016.
Badlands received a largely negative reception when it was first released; Warner Brother,s who had purchased the distribution rights, decided to run it as part of a double-bill with Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles, a move that was almost disastrous and led them to book out smaller theaters across the Midwest just to prove the point the the movie could stand on its own too feet and make money when run as an independent showing. It was selected to run as the final movie of 1973's New York Film Festival; the comedic slant on what was otherwise a study in teen psychotherapy, particularly Spacek's Sargis, whose visible lack of empathy was considered the most outstanding part of the film, overshadowed some heavy hitters that had been shown earlier in the festival, most notably Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets. Critics disliked Malick's world view, but could not deny his talent.
Sissy Spacek was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her performance in the Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles category, and the movie scored two awards at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in 1974, both for Malick (Golden Seashell Award) and for Martin Sheen (Best Actor). In later years, it has also been awarded a National Film Registry award by the National Film Preservation Board.
