Badlands - The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

Badlands announced the arrival of a major talent: Terrence Malick. His impressionistic take on the notorious Charles Starkweather killing spree of the late 1950s uses a serial-killer narrative as a springboard for an oblique teenage romance, lovingly and idiosyncratically enacted by Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The film 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 equaled its strange sublimity.

• United States
• 94 minutes
• Color
• 1.85:1
• English
• Spine #651
• 1973

Director-Approved Blu-ray Special Edition Features

- Restored 4K digital transfer, approved by director Terrence Malick, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Making “Badlands,” a 2012 documentary featuring actors Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek and art director Jack Fisk
- Interviews from 2012 with associate editor Billy Weber and executive producer Edward Pressman
- “Charles Starkweather,” a 1993 episode of the television program American Justice, about the real-life story on which the film was loosely based
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda

*Cover based on a painting commissioned by Malick