The French branch of Warner Brothers has revealed that it plans to add three classic films to its Blu-ray catalog in January: Terrence Malick's
Badlands (1973), Howard Hawks'
The Big Sleep (1946), and Andrew V. McLaglen's
Chisum (1970). All three releases will be available for purchase in France on January 8th.
Badlands
A garbage collector (Martin Sheen) and his impressionable girlfriend (Sissy Spacek) kill her father when he disapproves of their relationship, and embark on a homicidal trail of destruction across the Midwestern United States. Based on the true case of Starkweather and Fugate in the 1950s, Terrence Malick's directorial debut has influenced many subsequent writers and directors - notably Quentin Tarantino whose screenplays for
True Romance and
Natural Born Killers owe
Badlands an obvious debt.
The Big Sleep
A classic 'noir' adaptation of Raymond Chandler's much-filmed novel. Private detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) agrees to rid a wealthy family of a blackmailer who is threatening the younger daughter, but the man is killed before he can act. Drawn nevertheless into the Sternwood family's problems (not least because of his attraction to the elder sister, played by Lauren Bacall), Marlowe uncovers drugs, murder and more blackmail.
Chisum
This late John Wayne Western casts 'The Duke' as real-life ranch owner John Chisum, battling to save his land from a ruthless developer (Forrest Tucker). Based on the events of New Mexico's 1878 Lincoln County War, which saw Chisum enlisting the help of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid to protect what was rightfully his.