Just watched the 1973 Badlands movie today… the one with Martin Sheen and Sissy whatever her name is (the girl from original Carrie).
Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 98%. To me, it was too slow of a movie to be given that high of a rating. That’s not to say the movie was bad or that it didn’t have any action whatsoever, but the whole plot centered around the fact that a 25-year-old guy was dating a 15-year-old girl didn’t do it for me. I will admit though, it was really cool to see a young Martin Sheen do his thing in the movies. It was funny too because every time I saw Martin sheen's face all I saw was Charlie Sheen… which makes sense seeing how he is Martin’s son.
Anyways, so the West Wing star, Martin Sheen is (spoiler alert) playing a murderer serial killer in the ’70s, murdering really anyone who he thinks will try to bring him in after he murders Sissy’s father.
If you're wondering what the badlands part is, basically it's like the town they live in. (A separate note, I’m not sure if the tv show is based on this movie, but if you are looking for Kung Fu, there is none in it and there are no colonies or whatever they are called in the show in this movie… well besides the one they Sheen and Sissy make for themselves in a way… you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it for yourself.)
I guess if I had to give it a rating, I would give it an 82%. From a cinematography standpoint, it was an excellent film. The characters, the settings, the costumes, were all really well addressed and filmed perfectly in my opinion. However, it was just a little slow and Martin and Sissy's characters whole relationship was kind of messed up (even if they didn't show anything), and why Sissy even stayed with Sheen’s character after he killed her father made no sense to me. Also, at one point they were in like this Swiss family Robinson home, but they made the whole house in the jungle.
So, will I watch it again?
The answer is probably not.
The reason: It just felt like this was a one-time watch kinda movie. It was cool to see Martin Sheen in his young career as an actor, but it was just too weird and a little slow ( I think I've said this like 3 times but whatever). I'd recommend you watch it at least once though, (especially for the car chase scene in the dirt).
If you're interested in watching this movie for yourself, you can! All you have to do (if you have Cox Cable) is go On Demand --> Movies--> Free movie section--> 500 most popular and look for the movie cover like the one at the top of this article!
If you watched Bandlands do you agree or disagree with me? Share with me what you think!
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