His next film, "Days of Heaven" (1978), hauntingly photographed but less compelling than "Badlands, " was followed by a long hiatus before he returned with his wrenching James Jones adaptation, "The Thin Red Line" (1998), and his glittering reverie about the colonization of Virginia, "The New World" (2005).

WSJ: 'Badlands': A Collision of Beauty and Ugly Reality | Masterpiece Column by Kristin M. Jones