Yes, another suggestion from this film. There's lots to learn from Terrence Malick.
Badlands (1973)
http://youtu.be/kOhDvz7ETC8
BOSS: Heard the news, Kit?
KIT: No.
BOSS: Been in all the headlines.
KIT: What's that?
BOSS: You've been fired. Ain't that a hell of a note?
KIT: Yeah, how about that. Oh, I won't be needing my keys anymore. I'll just leave 'em where they'll be nice and handy.
Side note: this scene is not in any of the scripts I found online. I made the transcript from the clip. This scene must have been added late in the production. In the versions of the script I found, Kit goes directly to the unemployment office after meeting Holly and we get this exchange that is also in the movie:
INT. EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
Kit is talking with a CLERK inside an employment agency.
CLERK (o.c.): You ever held another job before?
KIT: I used to throw trash for the City.
CLERK: You lost that one?
KIT: Wouldn't be here if I hadn't.
It was a good choice to actually show Kit getting fired instead of just hearing about it. However, as it is in the script (not showing him getting fired) could be interpreted as Kit
choosing to get another job since Holly made him feel bad about being a garbage man, and Kit deciding to do something about it. In my opinion, I'm glad this scene was added, because it underscores the kind of character Kit is.
In the first scene of the film, we meet Holly where she is in her room petting her dog. There's a brief voice-over where we learn that her mother died some years earlier and that her father never recovered from the loss and moved the family to a new town.
Then we meet Kit at work as a garbage man. He finds a dead dog next to some garbage cans and says to his co-worker “I'll give you a dollar to eat this Collie.” To which the co-worker replies “I ain't gonna eat him for a dollar.” Sure, it could be just two guys joking around, but I'm curious to know if there's any significance to the fact that Malick has dogs in both introductions of the two main characters and shows how differently they are treated. Later in the film, Holly's dad shoots her dog as punishment for seeing Kit behind his back.
Kit tries to bum a cigarette of another co-worker but doesn't get it. He tries to sell a pair of boots that he found in the trash. It doesn't work. Basically, no one is buying his antics. He skips work early because he's “thrown enough trash for today”. He just leaves.
Even after he gets off work Kit looks through garbage cans. He's wandering the streets searching. It's like he has no real purpose, just someone looking for
something. Then he spots Holly on her front lawn practicing her baton twirling. He looks around and then approaches her. He has found
something.
Then we get the meet-up scene that was featured in the Daily Dialogue
here last week.
Then this scene as he gets fired.
Taken out of context this firing scene may seem like a throw-away, but seen in context in the series of scenes leading up to it and what comes after, it serves a purpose to help us understand the characters and the story better.
Show don't tell is the lesson here. And when it comes to getting to know and understand a character, it really helps showing what the people around him are doing and what choices they make. Holly's father is shown working in almost all his scenes. He's the opposite of this misfit and one of the reasons Holly falls for Kit. He's the dangerous alternative to a strict upbringing with homework and clarinet lessons.
Malick gave Kit the unglamorous job of a garbage man. Kit's pretty far down the food chain as far as work goes, and he can't even keep that job. The purpose of that is to show character, both Kit himself and the people around him and how they view him. His co-workers may not be thrilled with their lot in life either, but they accept it. Kit never did. He wanted something else. And he decided to go get that something, no matter what the consequences would be.
Sorry, I'm jumping the gun with the analysis here. I just couldn't help myself.