Even though Terrence Malick’s film "Badlands" takes place in South Dakota and Montana, it was filmed in southeastern Colorado during the summer and fall of 1972. This video examines some of the filming locations more than a half-century later, in August 2023.
The towns of Las Animas and Rocky Ford stand in for Fort Dupree, South Dakota. In the opening sequence, Martin Sheen’s character-Kit-collects trash in the alleyways segmenting the city blocks of Las Animas. While I didn’t have time to track down the specific alley or alleys seen in the movie, I took a photo that is representative of the town’s alleys in 2023.
Sissy Spacek’s character-Holly-lives at 505 Locust Avenue in Las Animas. As of 2023, the house has been repainted and appears unoccupied.
Some riverbank scenes were filmed off of County Road 24.5, north of the town of Swink, at 38° 01’ 50.38” N 103° 37’ 25.05” W. Fences and dense vegetation prevented me from accessing the side of the river where filming took place, but I was able to capture the area from the other side. The railroad bridge seen in the film is no longer there, but the concrete supports remain.
Holly takes clarinet lessons at the “McKenzie School of Music,” which is 400 South Main Street in Rocky Ford. Only a tiny portion of the building is seen in the film, in a shot that lasts eight seconds. As of 2023, the building is in poor condition and appears abandoned.
They “stop for supplies” at a rich man’s house. The exterior scenes were filmed at the Bloom Mansion in Trinidad, 330 East Main Street. As of 2023, it is well-maintained and serves as the Trinidad History Museum.
The railroad bridge scene was filmed along the Santa Fe Railway’s Raton subdivision at 37° 29’ 30.67” N 104° 10’ 38.10” W, just off U.S. Route 350 between La Junta and Trinidad, which roughly parallels the historic Santa Fe Trail. In 2023, this is still an active rail line. While the semaphore signals seen in the film have been replaced with modern equipment and the hut is no longer there, the bridge is still recognizable. However, the day I visited a railroad employee was inspecting the signals, so I couldn’t get a closer look at the bridge.
The mountains that serve as a landmark in the latter half of the film are identified as the “mountains of Saskatchewan.” In reality, they are the twin Spanish Peaks, part of the Sangre de Cristo range in south-central Colorado, and an important landmark on the Santa Fe Trail-the first visible Rocky Mountains.
When Kit stops to refuel his stolen car, he does so at the Delhi, Colorado One Stop at 37° 38' 31.41" N 104° 01' 05.16" W along U.S. Route 350, about 14 miles north of the railroad bridge. As of 2023, the One Stop is abandoned and partially collapsed, obliterating the part of the store seen in the film. The collapse happened sometime between October 2022 and August 2023, but I've included footage of the store from 2021, showing how it used to look. As the graffiti indicates, other fans of this film have paid a visit.
There were of course many other filming locations, but I didn’t have the time and resources to identify or visit them. If you know more about the other filming locations or have additional details about one of the locations identified in this video, please leave a comment.
Resources:
movie-locations.com/movies/b/...
www.zillow.com/homes/505-Locu...
www.eskimo.com/~toates/malick...
www.imdb.com/title/tt0069762/