Kit Carruthers (Martin Sheen) is 25 and handsome, a self-styled James Dean who has just lost his job as a garbage collector.  Holly (Sissy Spacek) is a 15-year-old dreamer and movie magazine fan who chronicles her new love with breathless teenage prose.   When Holly's father tries to end the relationship, Kit kills him, torches the house, and the two young lovers hit the road on a lyrical trip to nowhere that eventually leaves eight people dead.

Loosely based on the real-life killing spree of Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate in the 1950's, this much acclaimed first feature by Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) is disarming in its deadpan portrayal of star-struck lovers who become the stars they idolize --yet without any pleasure or purpose.  Set against the big skies of South Dakota and Montana, this contemporary Western offers a constant contrast between Spacek's self-romanticizing narration and the bleak emptiness of their outlaw world. 

This is not a moral journey backwards or forwards, but a slow revelation of the emptiness of their lives and celluloid dreams; we don't judge or fear the young couple as much as pity them.  And while their on-screen violence is shockingly tame by modern standards, it is nevertheless disturbing -- and eerily familiar -- in its blasé banality and echoes of Columbine and future young killers to come.

Film Essay by Todd Coleman.  Screenwriter and entertainment journalist Todd Coleman has written for The Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times, and Premiere magazine, and served as head researcher on three books on Hollywood.  He has written and directed numerous short films and videos, including a mannequin horror film at NYU that played on cable for 13 years and won eight international awards (during a particularly slow year for student films).  After three years in the internet world, Todd recently happily returned to the non-IPO world of indie filmmaking.

Discussion Panelists: Barbara R. Nicolosi, Dr. Thom Parham, Charlie Peters

Badlands screening
Sunday, November 12, 3:00 pm
Panel Discussion follows