Natural Born Killers- Review

After finally getting around to this, I'm kind of at a loss for words on the experience I had whilst watching this film. In short, after doing extensive research on the Columbine Massacre (and other 'copycat crimes') I wanted to see what it was in movies that inspired relatively young minds to kill. So if anything, this viewing was more of a research project than a pleasure viewing (though I did enjoy it).

Perhaps not the most popular film in terms of criticism, it is a complete play on people's reactions to confrontation and in comical fashion, slams the media for the glamorisation of murder and all that comes along with it. Directed by Oliver Stone with ideas originally penned down by Quentin Tarantino, it features the talents of Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis and Robert Downey Jr.

In what almost appears to be novel structure, this film is sectioned into a prologue and three parts following. In a series of distorted images, vibrant colours and choppy pieces of extra film in a cut and paste style, Natural Born Killers follows the lives of a husband and wife killer couple who go on mass murdering sprees and become infamous heroes globally.

While assessing this film for reasons stated above, I was also really fascinated by the extensive research Oliver Stone and his crew had done. Examples include, asking Robert Downey Jr to shadow Australian controversial reporter, Steve Dunleavy and create a similar persona. In doing this, Robert achieved success in creating a kooky, hyperactive and narcissistic TV personality with an almost perfect Australian accent.

The performances by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis were also something else. Both escaping traumatic childhoods, what they become is subject to how the media perceives killers to be 'born bad' or to follow in the actions of their parents that were once witnessed in their homes. As the role of Mickey Knox, Woody Harrelson showcases himself as a mild-mannered man with an inside personality (whom we often see flicker around in random shots) and an outside personality. Despite his murderous streak, there is rarely any anger or motive behind his murders.

Juliette Lewis portrays Mallory Knox, a spontaneous, angry and traumatised woman that still finds a link between her long abandoned home life and present day society. By definition, her personality and Mickey's literally fold into opposites attract. But when mixed together, they become a deadly mix.

Just falling under two hours running time, there were a few possible opportunities for this film to end. However, if it had done so, a lot of important information would have been missed. So relating back to what I said earlier, a few important quotes can be borrowed from this particular section that explain why humans act the way they do, why they kill and why we are not that different from animals. One quote that I will pull, explained by a sluggish and droll psychiatrist within this film that has great relevance within the misconception between telling apart a sociopath and a psychopath: "Mickey and Mallory know the difference between right and wrong, they just don't give a damn."

So what did I learn while watching this film? Apart from Dylan Klebold being heavily inspired by Woody Harrelson's Mickey outfits and Eric Harris' wrong idea of natural selection based off of a Mickey quote, Natural Born Killers literally drags the media from the 90s and present day under the bus. What inspires people to kill is not what they see unfolding in front of them, but by how the media elongates the stories, stretches the truth, sends mixed emotions within a crowd of people and how they glamorise that story. But the general idea about being a natural born killer would most likely have to resonate with troubled home life (in the instance of this film). People who are often subjected to violence in their house as a child will repeat this cycle as they to believe this is the correct behaviour.

This film takes the audience member on a gruesome joyride into the minds of two traumatised and mentally disturbed lovers and leaves them with a newfound perspective of the portrayal of murder within the media.

Score: 7.5/10.