Of Badlands, a film made by Terence Malik in 1973, the critic David Thomson has written:  “may be the most assured first film by an American since Citizen Kane.” My interest in seeing it came about, not from its place in cinema history, but rather because of a personal discovery.

A friend, Jack Womack whom I see several days a week in our locker room told me of his longstanding friendship with Malik, a fellow Oklahoman. Now retired from the Harvard faculty, Jack recently saw Malik’s new film, The Tree of Life, and recommended it to me.

I did not ascend to Jack’s level of enthusiasm for this ambitious work but discussion about it led to a surprising revelation. Jack told me that Malik had given him a role in Badlands. This disclosure astounded me because I would never have expected Jack, a reserved scholar of Latin American history, to have assumed a dramatic part in a major film.

Granted, the role was small. He played a state trooper responsible for transporting by air the captured killer who had finally been caught by the police. Sitting next to the young criminal, Jack spoke twice. The first line was a only a single word “state.” That was the trooper’s answer to a question about where he got his hat.

The second line was a little longer as he replied to the killer’s desire to get such a hat. There was simply no way that could happen answered the trooper. Then the plane took off.

When I asked Jack whether it was a real plane, he told me that it came from a firm that owned World War II aircraft and leased them to movie makers. Not only was it real but it actually took off. Even more striking, Jack tells me, during the flight the plane almost crashed.