MOVIES & LYRICS: Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" and Terrence Malick's "Badlands"
For screenwriters, inspiration can take many forms. For some, it's poetry or other forms of literature. For others, it's music or theater or TV shows or the work of certain filmmakers.
But what about the influence of screenwriters on other artists?
For this new blog series, we're taking a fun look at the influence of screenwriters on musicians and songwriters. With each new post, we'll take a known song and examine how a specific turn of phrase or thematic element was inspired by a film (and specifically a film's screenplay).
This week, we'll start subtle and slow with the title track of Bruce Springsteen's haunting, understated 1982 album Nebraska. "Nebraska" the song was never a huge, propulsive radio hit... but it's a very cinematic place to start.
Bruce Springsteen has never been shy about sharing the influence of certain films and filmmakers on his songwriting and album conceptualization. In addition to being a John Ford fan, the Boss was greatly influenced by Terrence Malick, particularly Malick's directorial debut, Badlands, which was released in 1973 (coincidentally the same year as Springsteen's own debut album Greetings from Asbury Park).
Springsteen's songs and Malick's films have some commonalities—like outsiders looking to transcend or just bust out and hit the road from their small, sad and confining towns. And, of course, it's all done with poetry and lyricism.
Recorded as a series of demos on a 4-track cassette recorder by Springsteen alone in his home studio, Nebraska the album deals with regular, down-and-out characters (a lot of criminals and murderers) many of whom face intense crises or reckonings over the course of the songs. Nebraska is one album Springsteen never toured to promote because the subject matter is bleak.
The first track on the album, the title track "Nebraska," is based specifically on Badlands.
Badlands, the film, was Terrence Malick's first as a director. It tells the story of a young couple on a crime spree across the midwest in the 1950s. The film is loosely inspired by real-life spree-killer Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate.
Listen to the track and see this excerpt of page 5 of Malick’s screenplay where characters Kit and Holly meet for the first time.
Holly twirls a baton on her front lawn... It's one of the first things we see in the film, as well as the lyric that opens the whole album.
I saw her standing on her front lawn just twirling her baton
Me and her went for a ride, sir, and ten innocent people died
From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska, with a sawed-off .410 on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path
I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done
At least for a little while, sir, me and her we had us some fun
Now, the jury brought in a guilty verdict, and the judge he sentenced me to death
Midnight in a prison storeroom with leather straps across my chest
Sheriff, when the man pulls that switch, sir, and snaps my poor head back
You make sure my pretty baby is sittin' right there on my lap
They declared me unfit to live, said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well, sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world
It's interesting to note that Springsteen was also inspired by the work of author Flannery O'Connor. The last two lyrics of "Nebraska" when the title character is about to be executed for his crimes and the authorities ask him why he did what he did, he says cagily: "Well, sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world." The lyric bares a resemblance to the last few lines of the character "The Misfit" in O'Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find," where he talks about "No pleasure but meanness."
It's a good reminder that art is a crucible where numerous influences can coexist.
“Nebraska” isn’t the only track on the album with the mark of Badlands on it. The final track on the album “Reason to Believe” opens with lyrics about a man standing over a dead dog and poking it with a stick. The very same image opens Badlands.
With Nebraska and, indeed, all of his music, Bruce Springsteen is an inspiration for many a writer of film and television. His songs appear on countless soundtracks. The song "State Trooper" from Nebraska is featured as the end credits song in an episode of The Sopranos. In his songs, there's a vibe. The same vibe can be found in the pages of Terrence Malick's Badlands screenplay.
This second draft of Badlands is available to read in the WGF Library. Search our catalog to see what other scripts we have and make an appointment to visit us and find your inspiration.
Until next time!