Rated 5 out of 5!
when the god of self supercedes all others...
The film opens up and ends in diary fashion - the voice of Sissy Spacek narrates here and there, telling the tale her bleak existence in 50s rural midwest America. Holly (Spacek) lives alone with her father, dog and pet catfish. Her catfish gets sick, so she tosses him in the yard as he flounders for a gasp of air before he suffocates to death... and this is just the appetizer. She disobeys her father, so he shoots and kills her dog - and then you start to see a set of characters full of rules, but no true love... just self-imposed morality as it fits their need for control of every situation.One lazy day Holly meets Kit (Martin Sheen), a handsome James Dean-esque character who is cocky, handsome, intelligent and shows interest in Holly. Kit is far from a father’’s dream of a catch for his daughter - kit is at least 10 years older and works as a garbage collector. While that profession pays better today, in the 1950s, it was hardly something worth writing home to mother about.
Holly’’s father forbids her to see Kit, but Kit is persistent and finally decides to kill the man who is in the way of their romance. The killing is less passionate or spontaneous than it is cold, emotionless and calculating. Similar to the way one swats a fly without remorse, killing it simply because it became too annoying, and life goes on. Holly just watches in a daze, not truly horrified at her wounded, dying father, and not surprised or mad at her beau.
Kit feels compelled to burn down the family home to cover up his crime, but then takes a record player outside so it won’’t burn - then goes to a self-recording record-making booth to make a confession record that plays outside the burning house as his morbid confession.
They live out in the wilderness, like animals, building primitive forts and look-out posts. When sheriff’’s deputies close in on them, the true killing spree begins. While a fairly unassuming garbage collector with no former criminal record, Kit has the skills of Rambo - he sets up camoflauged hiding areas and manages to kill all 3 deputies single-handed. They continue on a cross-country escape from justice, killing those who get in their way and sparing a few on a whim.
While Holly never truly pulls a trigger herself, she is the hapless participant and enabler - not threatened, but just tagging along like a faithful German Shepherd.
The movie is truly bizarre - but in a way, true to life in a chilling way. The young couple achieves a dark celebrity-like status - everyone knows who they are and are scared by them, yet fascinated at the same time.
The film is not overtly bloody and violent like the shoot-em-ups of today, but somehow very violent in an intimate way... there are many scenes without music or much background noise - just the eerie silence of the last breath of a dying gun-shot victim - things get so quiet, you can almost hear Holly’’s eyelids click when she blinks.
This is not a movie for kids and not a film to watch when you’’re tired - there are slow, silent scenes, but the film is far from boring. Aspiring actors and directors can learn a lot from this film’’s cinematography, direction and incredible acting. Despite it’’s almost flawless quality in filmmaking, it is a dark, depressing tale with no social redeeming values - other than a testimony to the results of raising children in a loveless environment. When children are not loved at home, they will attach themselves to the first person who shows interest in them - and find the near worship of their own pleasure as the pinnacle of existence.
