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Episode notes
Badlands as MK Ultra Film
- Terence Malick's "Badlands" features overt MK Ultra Monarch programming symbolism throughout.
- The film’s dreamlike quality and dissociative characters reflect psychological trauma themes.
Badlands' Lasting Influence
- "Badlands" inspired the lovers-on-the-run genre, notably influencing Tarantino’s True Romance and Natural Born Killers.
- The film presents social alienation and nihilism via a dreamlike narrative and unsettling family dynamics.
Youth Alienation and Anomie
- Malick portrays youth alienated from social and religious moorings, reflecting Durkheim's concept of anomie.
- The absence of political or religious salvation deepens Badlands' theme of profound social disillusion.