Holly Sargis narrates the 1973 film Badlands as a fifteen-year-old living in Fort Dupree. Her mother died from pneumonia years earlier leaving a strained relationship with her father who is a sign painter.
Terrence Malick began working on the screenplay during a road trip in 1970 when he was age twenty-seven. He developed a sales kit with slides and video tape of actors to present to investors before raising about half the money himself.
Martin Sheen played Kit Carruthers in the 1973 film Badlands despite being suggested by the casting director as too old. Sheen based his characterization of Kit on the actor James Dean while Sissy Spacek appeared in only her second film at the time.
Principal photography took place in Colorado starting in July 1972. A non-union crew worked with a low budget of $300,000 excluding some deferments to film labs and actors.
The 1973 film Badlands received a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from reviews of fifty-nine critics holding an average score of 8.9 out of 10. In 1993 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.