Badland

This powerful film has stayed with me for weeks, with its searing pain and wrecked, unforgettable beauty. As powerful as any war (or anti-war) story can be, it shows interior battle-fields. Memory is piled on memory - all mute - with tragic lack of healing, until desperation invades the soul and runs lives into heartbreak and ruin. The terrific cast is so deeply affecting because of the radiance within the main characters. The little girl is a wonder! Jerry and Max have a relationship which says more about current war than any overtly political statement.

Although the film is a long tour-de-force of emotion and drama, the bleakness of the circumstances is uplifted by a beautiful, dead-on score. Moments like long gazes at gorgeous skies, or exquisite background vocalises, drive home what could have been, and lift the film into an epic realm.

Three hours of my life I'm never getting back. Truly awful. It's 3 hours long and 2h 45m of it is a dream. The acting is lauded in other reviews on this platform but it's at best passable...if we're being kind.

I struggled through it hoping for some carefully crafted resolution but instead snored into a clumsy, puerile deus ex machina conclusion that made me want to vomit. If you require a story line, take a rain check. If you like good acting, take a rain check. If you want to see a movie that deals with the struggles of vets and reintegrating into civilian life after experiencing the horrors of war, pass!

One cannot watch this film and not be affected by the emotional impact it has long after leaving the theater. Badland is the type of powerful movie that longs to be discussed and debated.

The film is a disturbing view into the psyche of one man who returns from war beaten and broken. Jamie Draven gives an amazing performance as Jerry, the vet who returns home to a world as alien as the one he was fighting in. His tormented soul struggles to fit back into society, only to find that he is truly lost.

Jerry can no longer relate to his wife and children and without giving anything away, his anguish sets him on a path of self destruction. The only ray of sunshine on his tortured journey, is that of his daughter Celina, played with the maturity of a veteran actress by young Grace Fulton.

The music is haunting in it's simplicity and underscores the torment of Jerry's character. The panoramic vistas seem to add a sense of normalcy and serenity to an otherwise harsh and brutal subject matter and they seem to enhance Jerry's yearning to find peace and redemption. But Jerry realizes that his dream to find peace and a new beginning only brings out more ghosts and memories of his past. He can't escape what he's done and he can't undo the terrible acts of violence he has committed. And when he meets Max, also a war vet, played by actor Joe Morton, he is reminded with blinding clarity that the sins of the past really do follow you forcing you to face them with the force of a sledge hammer. Jerry is so out of touch with reality that he attempts to weave a new life for himself in the face of his brutally violent acts. He is so shattered that he believes he can simply step away from his past and step into a new life like changing a pair of pants. To his horror, he discovers he cannot.

The entire cast gave outstanding performances bringing the realities of war home and one can only wonder just how beaten and broken the vets who come home truly are. This powerful film gives us a glimpse into ravages of war and one cannot help but be affected by emotional whirlwind the characters go through as we follow them.

Director Francesco Lucente has given us a movie without the tired cliché flashbacks of war footage. We already know that war is physically devastating, what Badland shows us is the devastation it has on the soul. It is truly a courageous film that will be the topic of discussion for years to come and a MUST see film.

This is a quite long film (almost 3 hours) but you don't really see the time pass by as it is very poignant and gripping. The scenario is well constructed, acting is excellent as well as film direction. There are some glitches (like a wound in the girl's hand that appears completely healed in a scene then is shown again with a bloody plaster on it in the next one) but they are very minor.

Overall, it is an excellent film about the traumatic and dramatic results of war on the psyche and life of American soldiers when they come back to the States. Jamie Draven plays the role of Jerry, an American soldier who has tremendous difficulties to adjust to normal life again. To make matters worse, his wife thinks he is an a**hole, they live in a sordid home and environment with three children and a fourth one is in the womb. Jerry commits something tragic (can't say what… would be a spoiler) and as a consequence, engages in a drama-laden trip in his homeland with a constant refusal to accept full redemption leading to a tragic end for the only thing that could have saved him from himself (can't say what again;-)

The penultimate flash scene could have been removed as it unrealistically questions the whole story's existence. Whereas the whole film could shock audiences, that scene tries to come back on that jolt like they were not so sure about going the full length. Anyway, fortunately it was a very short scene which you could choose to ignore

This movie stays with you, long after the end credits have rolled. It's the performance, the semi-documentary feel, the inspired by true events thing (it does feel real), the political and (anti-) war message it delivers and many other things (among them a very stunning lead performance).

It definitely isn't afraid to pull out all the stops and go for it. For this radical and brave choice(s) it makes, it will get either your admiration or your disbelieve. And with the latter also a bad review. While you can criticize the movie for quite a few things (patriotic it ain't for once), you can't deny it's impact! While the structure might seem a little bit strange (even chaotic if you want to call it that) and it seems not to have a particular goal, this might indeed be the message the movie has for the viewer ...