The beginning of Terence Malick's feature filmmaking career begins with neither a bang nor a whimper - but the ambivalent hum of 60s American suburbia. As real-world crime and Hollywood myths of the era coalesce, the filmmaker embarks upon an odyssey through a country in desperate search of new icons, spanning the bygone Western past of the nation with the  schoolyard romances of the day. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek dazzle in one of the quietest and lovelorn romances in Hollywood history, indelibly expressive on top of Malick's foreboding landscapes by his long lenses and abstract approach to storytelling. Join your hosts on their date with destiny as they discuss this neo-noir's delightful structure, ecological commentary, and metafictional leanings!

Gabriella Blasi's Article - The Orchid in the Land of Garbage: An Ecocritique of Terrence Malick's Film Badlands (1973)