Natural Born Killers Essay Research Paper Natural

Natural Born Killers Essay, Research Paper

Natural Born Killers

In 1994, Oliver Stone left movie-goers and reviews likewise in awe. His movie, Natural Born Killers, was released to theaters all over America. The narrative, originally written by Quentin Tarantino, was one of two mass-murders who go on a sidesplitting fling across the state. At a glimpse, the rubric suggests the theory that slayers are born to be merely that & # 8211 ; slayers, of course. Oliver Stone wastes no clip at all as he tears this theory to scintillas. He claims that slayers are born from society, and are kept alive by the media. Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis play the Bonnie and Clyde type squad of lovers that head out to alter the universe.

If one proverb this movie in the 1970ss or 1880ss, he or she might be shocked by its surrealism and many distressing deductions. However, being released in the early 1890ss, alterations our perceptual experiences drastically. This is merely because at this clip it was much more relevant and familiar to our society. Assumably, the many telecasting cartridge holders interspersed throughout the movie hit a small excessively close to place for many Americans. We are populating in a clip when it is common to see Particular Reports and Live newscasts cut into our favourite telecasting shows. Much like Stone utilized many different movie techniques and added cartridge holders into his movie Natural Born Killers. Morphing, back projection, slow gesture, life, pixillation, colour, black and white, 35mm, and Super-8 are all ocular fast ones Stone used to maintain our attending in the film.1 This changeless collage was really effectual, along with the absolutely selected soundtrack. Ironically, In our ain places, even though our cherished telecasting clip is annoyingly interrupted, we still watch when a intelligence flash jars across the screen. Our wonder would non allow us turn the channel if we tried. Cinematic accomplishments and fast ones are non what maintain us interested in this intelligence, However. The media s portraiture and glory of force and offense is what keeps us as a society hooked, particularly in the few old ages prior to and environing Stone s movie Natural Born Killers. How about these film thoughts: Two immature, affluent, fine-looking brothers in Beverly Hills murdering their parents in a bloody slaughter, a black adult male being beaten by white constabulary officers cries out for aid, an Olympic aspirant so haunted with winning the gold decoration hires a hit adult male to destruct the competition, a cult in a little southern town is brainwashed by one adult male and do the ultimate forfeit of self-destruction at his petition, and last but non least the narrative of a football hero being the figure one and merely surmise in his ex-wife s gruesome slaying. These all sound like great thoughts for blockbuster films, but we ve all seen them before for free, in much item, right in our really ain life suites. The narratives of the Menendez brothers, the Rodney King whipping, Tonya Harding, David Koresch s cult in Waco, Texas, and the O.J. Simpson test were all still vivid in our caputs during the release of Natural Born Killers. All of these offenses or slayings happened in different parts of the state, but were made local to anybody in any metropolis or province by the intelligence media. Footage from each of these tests compose the stoping scene of the movie.2 Stone was quoted as stating: When I started this was a phantasmagoric piece. Now thanks to Bobbitt and Menendez and Tonya Harding, it s go a sarcasm. By the clip I d finished, fact had caught up to fiction. O.J. is the concluding runaway. 3 The American populace is much excessively fascinated with felons and offense, and most of this captivation is perpetuated by the media as Stone claims in Natural Born Killers. The more we see on T.V. about a murder, the more we want to cognize.

The first scene in the film, after the beginning credits are displayed, is of a waitress in a diner tossing through channels on an old black and white telecasting. Clips of Leave it to Beaver and President Nixon flash rapidly across the little screen. The two chief characters, Mickey and Mallory get down killing shortly thereafter.4 Oliver Stone was non seeking to underact this subject of the media playing a major function in the life of a consecutive slayer, there is no concealed significance here at all. Stone, does nevertheless, briefly point out the fact that turning up in a dysfunctional household is the platform for both Mickey and Mallory. A flashback of Mallory s childhood was in the signifier of a situation comedy. There was even a rubric placed over the scene, the I Love Mallory show dangled in forepart of the camera for a few seconds. The focal point was Mallory s opprobrious male parent played by Rodney Dangerfield. Laughter of a unrecorded audience was played when he threatened to ravish or crush his girl. This is merely Stone s manner of indicating out how wearied we become watching telecasting, and that anything can be amusement. The female parent merely smiled as the maltreatment went on in forepart of the younger sibling. When asked by a telecasting newsman how he got where he was, Mickey explained that his male parent was violet every bit good and that he merely was a merchandise of that household violence.5 Mallory subsequently murdered both her parents with the aid of her boyfriend Mickey. This is an first-class illustration of society ( mallory s household ) turning her into a slayer, and the media ( sitcom-like re-enactment ) fueling the fire. Some more illustrations of the media perpetuating and glorifying offense are all the sce

Nes where citizens are interviewed on the street. Adolescents look into the lens of the camera erosion I love Mickey and Mallory T-shirts and say things like, If I were a mass liquidator, I d be Mickey and Mallory! and Murder me Mickey! 6 Quick glances of horror films and insect shows are frequently in the background. Old film footage of Equus caballuss and fire are indiscriminately projected onto the cloudy sky. A close camera shooting on a mark outside Mickey and Mallory s motel reads Free HBO. There is besides a scene at the terminal, where 100s of fans are waiting outside the courtroom merely to catch a glance of the celebrated slayers. This is spookily familiar to the crowds outside the courtroom during the O.J. Simpson test.

Wayne Gayle, a tabloid telecasting show newsman, wants the ultimate ticket to fame. He wants a unrecorded interview with Mickey. After explicating his instance to Mickey and claiming Television history with the Most magnetic consecutive slayer of all clip the agreements are made for an interview on Super Bowl Sunday. Possibly the most distressing scene asseverating the claim, is at the really terminal when Mickey and Mallory are acquiring ready to kill Wayne Gayle, played by Robert Downey Jr. The dynamic couple are ever known for go forthing one victim life. Gayle, remembers this, but is still viciously murdered because Mickey points out that his camera is still shooting. The whole ground he is at that place in the first topographic point finally ended up killing him. The camera is all that is necessary to state the narrative any longer.

I think that Oliver Stone s claim that slayers are non born as slayers, but transformed by society, and go on that manner because of telecasting and films is arguably a good 1. This peculiar claim is exemplified absolutely in one of the last scenes. Riots in the prison leave blood stained walls, but the newsman still does non abandon his camera. In his interview, Mickey really states that the media made him the manner he was, and really created a consecutive slayer. As Wayne Gayle, the newsman, begs for his life, Mickey says deeply, Killing you and what you represent makes a statement Frankenstein killed Dr. Frankenstein. Mickey has met his lucifer, his Godhead the media. Mickey goes on to explicate his ain theory that media is like adult male made conditions. That it survives on the purchasing and merchandising of fright. It is a barbarous circle. The media helps to make these slayers in our society, but does nil to halt it, it is the airtime these people get from both the media and us as viewing audiences, that maintain them the manner that they are. The film managers and intelligence ground tackles merely provide what we demand. Look at what the media has done to us, Stone stated in one interview, Any of us could go like Mickey and Mallory. 7 I do non needfully hold that anyone could be like Mickey and Mallory, but if already troubled plenty, our mass media system could decidedly convey forth the celebrity that surrounds Mickey and Mallory in the film. This is rather perchance an every bit distressing thought.

Equally much as I agree with Stone s truth and relevancy to the societal context of the clip at which the film was released, I think that there could hold been a bit more holding to make with the households the liquidators came from. Mallory s household was highlighted in the sit-com manner scene, but nil much was said for Mickey s childhood, except for a few generic flashbacks. I agree strongly that the utmost coverage of mass-murderers and felons on telecasting today has made our society more acceptable of offense and more jaded to existent life force. There is still the hope that strong household values can do up for what the telecasting has forced us to miss. There were more than a few allusions to interrupt places and dysfunctional households, but non about every bit much as the allusions to telecasting. I see the two as every bit perverting.

Oliver Stone s Natural Born Killers surely did what Stone intended it to. Appeal to an audience and acquire media attending ironically. Stone s claim was backed up and reinforced many times throughout the film. This film could non hold come at a better clip in our society. Coincidentally or non, the thought of the media following a narrative for so long with so much coverage was the norm in the early 1890ss. The hyped up narrative of Mickey and Mallory was non so incredible after months of watching the Menendez test and seeing O.J on our telecasting sets everyday for over a twelvemonth. Oliver Stone has forced us to see the world of how much telecasting and films influence us as a society. If we are genuinely honorable with ourselves, we can see the job, defined of all time so exactly in Natural Born Killers.

Notes

1 Damien Cannon, rpm. of Natural Born Killers. Movie Reviews UK ( 1997 ) . 6 November 2000.

2 Natural Born Killers, dir. Oliver Stone, perf. Juliette Lewis, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey J.r. , and Tommy Lee Jones. Warner Bros. 1994.

3 Richard Corliss, Stone Crazy, Time vol.144, No. 9 August 1994, 6 November 2000 hypertext transfer protocol: //www.time.com/time/magazine/archive.cinema.html

4 Natural Born Killers, dir. Oliver Stone.

5 Natural Born Killers, dir. Oliver Stone.

6 Natural Born Killers, dir. Oliver Stone.

7 Answer Frame New Releases August 26 1994, 6 November 2000 hypertext transfer protocol: //www.inconnect.com/ renshaw//new082694.html.