8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.2 |
An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.
Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri, Alan VintDrama | 100% |
Film-Noir | 19% |
Romance | 14% |
Period | 14% |
Crime | 4% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Terrence Malick's "Badlands" (1973) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer; new documentary featuring interviews with actors Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek and production designer Jack Fisk; new video interview with producer Edward Pressman; new video interview with associate editor Billy Weber; and a 1993 episode of the television series American Justice. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring an essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
"What does a little Texas girl like yourself think of a sight like that?"
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Badlands arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"Approved by director Terrence Malick, this new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Northlight film scanner from the original 35mm camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, and jitter were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Image Systems' Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise reduction, and flicker.
Transfer supervisor: Emmanuel Lubezki, Maria Palazzola.
Colorist: Brian McMahan/Technicolor, Los Angeles."
Beautifully restored in 4K, director Terrence Malick's first feature film looks gorgeous on Blu-ray. Virtually all close-ups boast tremendous detail, allowing one to see even incredibly small objects (see screencapture #3). The large panoramic shots, and especially the ones from the second half of the film, also look quite remarkable. Depth, clarity and fluidity in them are truly exceptional. Viewers who watch their films on large screens, or better yet project them, are guaranteed to be impressed by the stability and wonderful organic qualities of the new high-definition transfer - there isn't even a whiff of sharpening corrections or annoying encoding anomalies. Arguably the greatest improvements, however, are in the area of color reproduction. The 4K restoration has produced an entirely new range of remarkably natural colors - blues, greens, browns, reds, and even grays look excellent. Lastly, there are absolutely no damage marks, cuts, warps, or stains to report in this review. To sum it all up, if you enjoy strong organic presentations of classic films, I guarantee you will be enormously pleased with Criterion's Blu-ray release of Badlands. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.
There are sequences where the lossless track surprises with excellent depth, one that one would typically associate with modern big-budget films. One such sequence is the long chase at the end of the film where the state troopers and Kit fire at each other. Elsewhere random nature sounds also make an impression with great crispness and clarity. George Aliceson Tipton's excellent soundtrack also adds to the surreal atmosphere. The dialog is consistently crisp and stable. Also, there are no pops, annoying background hiss, audio dropouts or distortions to report in this review.
I truly hope that you will choose to own many of these beautiful Blu-ray releases that are coming via the Criterion Collection lately. Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront and now Terrence Malick's Badlands are amongst the greatest films of their generations, they are part of American history. Recently restored, these films now look the best they ever have. Support these releases, folks, so that more of these important films are restored and made available to see as their creators intended. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
1978
1955
Includes Elia Kazan: Outsider 1982 Documentary
1954
1950
2006
1955
1948
1976
À bout de souffle
1960
2007
1974
1954
1990
1984
1970
1936
1950
2012
2012
1948