How far do the American films you have studied establish Narrative or Genre Conventions
In Badlands, the genre covnevtions are true to the "Lovers On The Lam" genre, this is show mostly through the Mise En Scene of the film.An example of this is the recurring bird cage that appears several times throughout the film, this relates to themes of being trapped and this is a convention present in most films of this genre.
This theme is also present in Natural Born Killers (NBKs).
Another theme present in both of the films is the theme of Fame and the American Dream. Throughout both of the films, both of the male characters are refered to as celebrities, this is through the media but also the likeness that the male characters have to real celebrities.
In badlands, the character kit tries to leave marks and almost clues as to where he has been, in the end sequence he collects rocks up and states that this is where the police caught him, like he is leaving a landmark.
A police officer in the car also states that kit looks like James dean ( a popular start and role model for teenagers at his time.
This is extremely similar to NBKs as the male character leaves his landmarks in the form of bodies, as it is more of a violent film. Also he is interview in prison and he asks if his ratings were good.
Both characters only care about being famous, the difference is kit wants his name to be known where as Micky want to be better than any celerity, he want to be known by every person in the world.
