What's the spirit within this film then? Audience always affected without noticing the change in their value in their mind. The power of a film is sometimes you don't even need to think, you naturally put yourself in the scenes and the filmmakers easily manipulate your emotion and feeling through their story telling technique. And for a director like Terrence Malick, who studied philosophy under Stanley Cavell at Harvard University, and went on to Magdalen College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, it is easy to influence the audience with his value of life, in which case, if his value is so important, he should be aware of this matter, otherwise it can misguide a large number of people to share his point of view.
Grown up in eastern culture, it is not easy for me to accept his poetic about murdering. First of all, after Kit killed Holly's father, he's already transgress morality. But it can still be forgiven by arguing it was done by accident, and also you can also forgive him and her for her innocent voice-over, the audience has already being persuaded by the young girl's diary reading, we can see her subjective view on what they've been doing. In the whole story, these young couple has been put in a weak position: it was them, who were isolated by the cold society, it was them, who chased by the cold rule of the society; and it was also them, who had nowhere to hide and nowhere to live. And all they were trying to do is just be together, that's all, they love each other, and there were nothing wrong to love anyone. For all these reason,the audience forgives them, and even sympathizes with them. Who doesn't want to be with the people he/she loves? All we can see is the power of youth, and vivid life on the screen, we even want to be like them living in a free life.
Freedom, youth and love, are there just these? No, in this story these beautiful elements are actually built upon an ugly foundation, that's the selfishness in everybody's blood, and that's why there is the girl's voice-over, totally personal and full of subjective knowledge. She is not aware of how selfish they are to spend so many others' lives on their own happiness. We ignored the equal value of everyone's life, and let the intelligent director put our position on the young girl's side, thinking with her mind. What the girl's father did to them is depriving their freedom of loving each other, which might be a wrong thing to do, but not wrong enough for him to make up this fault with his life. And then what they've done made themselves couldn't be accept by the society, they've been isolated and chased by police. It's wrong!According to the film they are innocent, they are not dangerous or trying to hurt anyone, as long as you don't bother their lives, it would be all fine. But did the people they killed deserve death then?
Why should I care about any reason? Art is just art, beauty is just beauty.
But put yourself at kit's position, don't think about any reason, the moment you fire your gun to kill a person, who just like you also has life and lover, and born by mother, how does it feel? For me, I cannot bear seeing any life die in front of me. I believe it is human nature. We like to see things live rather than die. But with Holly's innocent voice-over, I nearly believed that human nature is born in this ugly way -- kill others for self-need, not even every animal does that. What even worse, they kill unarmed people with gun, and they also kill people who offered their food for friendship.
I can never accept a film putting villainous character in hero's position, glamorizing the ugly side of human nature with innocent explanations. Killing people with any personal reason is not right. The influence of the film I can provide no survey or evidence, but I really don't like this kind of gussy technique.
If Badlands is a feature, than the filmmakers should still think about the social influences, it is for this murder spree rather than against. The girl's hypnotic voice-over shows the opinion of man behind the curtain. It is not just low-key about the incidence, it is exculpating mass murder. If badlands is just a film with no one's opinion then, it is still not honest to the real story, it is a lie. The true story happened in 1958, when Charles Starkweather was 19, and lived in Nebraska town, he was desperate to marry Caril Fugate who was still a minor girl, and leave their tragic town. This young couple committed the murder spree for making money. But it was not just their fault, they live in the 1950's , when James Dean the Rock and Roll star challenged the status with rebellion,and angst and isolation from society are the other reasons why they did these to give back. They brought about frightening and offensive feeling to the area their action covered.
What is most important in filmmaker's value? Big box office is important, which shows not just the money made from the film, but also the number of audience. There're also filmmakers who decide to make film follow their own sense of art, rather then follow the taste of the mass-market. My value of art is how the film affects the audience, if a film gives a negative influence to the audience, with a big box office then it is a tragedy.
Juxtaposition
This technique is heavily used in Malick Holly's film, voice-over is such an affective persuasion, with the right voice it can be almost hypnosis. In Badlands Holly's flat readings of her flowery romance novel diary goes with the banal and surreal details of their journey . Sublime visuals supports the narration working so well, the juxtaposition of visual and hearing lend the dreamlike beauty to the couple's trip, with no voice-over, it wouldn't be able to place audience's attention totally on the beauty of this couple, forgiving their sin.
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