Road Movies Tale of Two Term Paper

Clarence and Alabama are capable of finding some sense of mirrored self in the eyes and common quest provided by relationship with another, and it is worth remembering that identity is serious business in "True Romance," serious enough to kill over, as in the film's perhaps most famous dialogue sequence, where Christopher Walken assassinates a man whom he believes has impugned the identity of Sicilians.

Thus, the protagonists of "True Romance" are more successful than the protagonists of "Badlands." They are not simply more successful as outlaws, but as human beings. They win their quest for fulfillment, money, and excitement because they are able to work together, and are a more functioning romantic and criminal team together. Although togetherness provides the psychic fuel of the meaningless murders of "Badlands," the generation of the Kit and Holly couple is not really a couple at all. The two never connect, and their pairing is more like a pairing of fuel and fire, than a real merging and unity into a romantic dyad.

Works Cited

Danks, Adrian."Death Comes as an End: Temporality, Domesticity and Photography in Terrence Malick's Badlands. 2000. Senses of Cinema. http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/8/index.html" Issue 8, July-Aug 2000.

Rafter, Nicole. Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society. New York: Oxford

University Press, 2000.

Stam, Robert. Literature through Film: Realism, Magic and the Art of Adaptation. New York: Blackwell, 2004.

Walker, Beverly. "Interview with Terence Malick." Sight and Sound.44:2:82-83. Spring

Wilding, M. "Romantic Love and 'Getting Married': Narratives of….....