Badlands

I'm going to South East Asia (Thailand and Vietnam) in a couple of weeks and just starting to think about what I need to take with me and what I have to do to prepare for the trip

Like a lot of regular travellers I have a routine and a series of 'survival aids' for life on the road. Along with obvious things like passport, business cards, credit cards I always carry an iPod and often update / alter the music on it for specific countries. I have a set of films on DVD that I stick in my bag, which include some old favourites like Kes, Withnail and I, and Mike Bassett, England Manager. Perhaps not the most cerebral selection but feel-good, familiar stuff to pass on a couple of hours in a hotel room, and perhaps keep me out of the bar, at least for a while

Last night I watched an old favourite film I'd not seen for a long time: Badlands, starring Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen. I'm fairly certain I first saw this in the eighties, when it was introduced by Alex Cox on the BBC2 series 'Moviedrome'. The photography and soundtrack, along with acting and direction, are all excellent and it's going in my bag when I go away next