Badlands

When you hear about something based on a true story, somehow you begin to expect something that is a bit less true than is being advertised. A bit of sensationalizing, perhaps, a combing through of the parts people expect with a large quantity of dramatic license to massage it through. So if Badlands is based on the true story of a young couple hiding out after one of them kills lots of people, you'll likely expect something that's a bit of an action thriller about young love and copious amounts of sex. That's not what you get when you watch Badlands.

Okay, it's about young love, that much is true. Martin Sheen at his sexiest plays Kit, a sexy garbage man who is sexy, and 25. Sissy Spacek is Holly, a 15 year old girl who does music lessons and baton twirling. They fall in love in a slightly creepy relationship, which Holly's dad (Warren Oates) does not approve of, for obvious reasons. Kit kills Holly's dad and she goes on the run with him, because teenage girls are stupid.

However, instead of being about these hot and sexy young lovers sexily loving each other in a young way, it turns into something very different. It is, more than anything, a meditation on loneliness, as the pair's only companion is the car they steal and acres of empty space. This is partially due to Kit needlessly killing everyone he comes across, so you're not quite sympathetic for them, but the film does a good job of emphasizing just how alone and apart from the world they are. Sometimes they're just the only object in frame apart from an empty sky and an emptier field. It just emphasizes their isolation.

The film is also quite pretty, in spite of the awful '70s film stock which was de rigueur. Shot composition is often breathtaking, always beautiful, and sometimes does a better job of telling the story than the script. It's about two people in the middle of nothing, and the shots are perfect at emphasizing their situation.

That said, the film is far from perfect. Spacek's narration doesn't really serve much purpose, apart from reminding us that she's a teenage girl and thus stupid - this is a trait shared with teenage boys by the way, it's just that there aren't any in the film to call out for their stupidity. Kit's character is obviously charming, a point emphasized by the later scenes where he charms all the people who tried to arrest him, but he's not very consistently charming, which undermines it a bit. Also, mountains of Saskatchewan, are you serious? Gales of laughter right there.

Still, it does what it seems to have intended all along, and it does a good job. The film presents the loneliness of people who brought it on themselves in a surprisingly sympathetic manner, and is pretty strong overall as a film. It could easily be seen as boring, but if you're in the right mindset, it's almost therapeutic.

Apocalypse Now: Theatrical Cut.

It's well known how difficult the shoot of Apocalypse Now, and Francis Ford Coppola's descent into insanity during it is well documented. So Apocalypse Now being clearly the work of a madman is almost a given. Don't assume that is an insult, the film is about madness and insanity, so who better than make a film about madness than someone who's going insane?

The short story - though being 157 minutes, it isn't actually a very short story - is that Martin Sheen is in the army, and is sent to kill Marlon Brando. On the way, he encounters a number of steadily less sane events and people, which somewhat prepares him for what he has to do in the end, though I suppose each event makes him that little bit more crazy. Of course, I'm skipping a lot, because I don't like plot synopses.

In essence, this is a lengthy criticism of the Vietnam war, and war in general, focused more on the mental costs of it rather than being especially political. Nobody seems to know why they fight, they just do it, and will continue to do it until they're killed themselves. They do increasingly awful things for no clear purpose other than to do them, forgetting about their humanity in the process. They become paranoid, delusional, and broken.

So, it's good then. The imagery is a strange combination of beauty and horror, the music is amazing and it probably is at least part of the reason people still care about the Doors. It's even surprisingly popular for a film that is quite disturbing, with lines and scenes being parodied and referenced pretty much everywhere.

This is a very personal project, a portrait of the mind of Francis Ford Coppola as he went steadily more insane. Even insane, he knows how to make an amazing film, with stunning imagery and a compelling story. Maybe more great directors should go to the Philippines and lose their minds if this is what results.

(I admit this is not my best entry ever. I'm in the middle of looking for a place to live, so I'm slightly distracted. Next entry will probably be better!)