The Terrence Malick movie Jane Campion called “perfect”
The two Academy Awards of Jane Campion came some 28 years apart. The first arrived in 1994 for The Piano, starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill, for which Campion received the award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’. It was a long wait indeed for her next Oscar win, though, which arrived in 2022 for the revisionist western drama The Power of the Dog.
The film is based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. Campion scooped the Academy Award for ‘Best Director’ for her efforts at the film’s helm. Elsewhere, she is known for taking the lead on An Angels at My Table, The Portrait of a Lady, Holy Smoke! and Bright Star.
In a feature with the Academy Award website A-Frame, Campion once noted the five films that inspired her the most, during which time she drew attention to a rare instance of a film actually being “perfect”. The movie in question is Terrence Malick’s 1973 drama Badlands.
Discussing the movie, Campion said, “This is one of those rare creatures: a perfect film. Terrence Malick understands the poetry in every character and particularly in this fated teen murderer and his newly met runaway girlfriend.”
“The Martin Sheen character does terrible things, but he is also in love and not long for this world,” she added. “Sissy Spacek is beautiful and unique in a way we rarely see in films. Her voiceover is matter-of-fact and grounding. The couple’s brief time together in a kind of enchanted wasteland is unforgettable.”
The film, as Campion notes, stars Martin Sheen as a 25-year-old binman and former Korean War serviceman and Sissy Spacek as a 15-year-old girl. The two enter into a controversial sexual relationship, but the controversy does not end with their sexual union as the two leave their boring South Dakota town to embark on a killing spree, beginning with the girl’s father.
“There is a delicacy of shooting style and observation,” Campion further observed. “Reading about how Malick works with his actors, I discover that he makes adjustments to his story to include the unique qualities of his actors, such as Sissy’s baton twirling.”
The film was actually based on the true events of the killing spree that Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate undertook in 1958. Spacek’s performance was of particular admiration to critics upon the movie’s release, and she was nominated for the ‘Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles’ award at the 49th British Academy Film Awards.
