NATURAL BORN KILLERS
A film review by L. G. Brossa
Copyright 1994 L. G. Brossa
At a time when the average citizen finds themselves surrounded by real and imagined violence, Oliver Stone and associates have propelled film violence beyond all previous rationalizations. In his most recent film "Natural Born Killers", the public is not just treated to a panoply of gratuitous savagery, but also threatened with an unprecedented wave of copycat violence. As the film BONNIE AND CLYDE, became the rebellious cult classic for the Sixties generation, the psychopathic characters of Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis), promise a plethora of violent role playing for rudderless youth of the Nineties.
What is most impressive about Stone's recent contribution to our cultural miasma, is the confused attempt to cloak this orgy of unrelenting violence, within modern society's apparent inability to control human conflict. The audience is driven from one social malady, to another, without a moment's reflection. Of course, we're supposed to intuit (with the subtlety of a bloodied sledge-hammer) that Mr. Stone's artistic mission is to meld contemporary hyper- media technique, with a message that America's drowning in brutality. He hides behind the idea of exposing the media's glorification of mass-murderers, but only succeeds in accelerating the film's audience down an interstate highway of ultra-violence!
To the seasoned film freak, NATURAL BORN KILLERS is nothing more than a synthesized high-tech version of CLOCKWORK ORANGE meets BONNIE AND CLYDE. Unfortunately, few young adults will have the historic reference to gain from this bloody social commentary.
The idea that our children have become innocent victims of the Saturday morning cartoons, is alluded to with interspersed imagery of these two murderers, rampaging through scenes as cartoon alter-egos. This linkage of media with acts of youth violence, is so-o-o perceptive. I will not hold Mr. Stone accountable for abrogating his responsibility as his art might inadvertently impact the influential craniums of today's youth. I will not accuse him of hypocrisy, for having used the same technologies to exploit the minds of the unwitting audience; those same media techniques he purports to expose in his film! However, I will hold him morally accountable for the emulated murders, that are sure to result from this film's release.
I was surprised to find Mr. Stone joining the ranks of media-maggots, who incessantly gorge themselves upon the limbs of America's victims of murder ... all in the name of social commentary. It was extremely disheartening to find the same brilliant artist--who actually brought tears to my eyes in his production of JFK--succumb to the production of the garbage entitled NATURAL BORN KILLERS. I will concede that the direction is impeccably brilliant. Where else can you utilize unflinching events-per-second editing, advanced image morphing, cartoons and state of the art audio mixing, all devoted to the heedless slaughter of numerous innocents?
Like so many other "geniuses" in the film industry, the likes of Oliver Stone will hide behind artistic temperament, thus avoiding moral responsibility to their viewing public. That same public that will have to pay more--as a result of his self aggrandizement--than the price of a ticket because of this film. Like any other engineers of social policy, the "Oliver Stones" remain economically buffered to the devastating after-blast of their art. I only wish, they someday find themselves abandoned on the same highway of murderous images, they so generously pour into the minds of pliant youth!
In light of my obvious distaste for this man's film, I would ask that every serious-minded individual, take the time to view this film. Criminologists, law enforcement agents, psychotherapists, political scientists and anyone concerned with human welfare, should take the time to view this film. You'll be forewarned as to what will no doubt be a quantitative shift in mass-murders, throughout this nation. True, there will be scant evidence as to this films direct culpability in each prospective murder scene. Be assured, many of these murderers, will have had more than coincidental knowledge of NATURAL BORN KILLERS.
Should you quickly dismiss my warning, ask why this movie devoted so much attention to media's exploitation of violence, and the public's ongoing preoccupation with it? Could it be, Oliver Stone also perceives the disappearing line between reality and phantasy in high-technology cultural expression? That media's influence over society is inseparable from the realities it portrays. For my part, I'm praying that my anxiety is the result of this film's powerful imagery ... nothing more.
At a time in history, when we all risk total immersion into a swirling cesspool of uncontrolled societal violence; as our government responds to public outrage at rampant crime, with counterproductive criminal-code legislation; while grade schools struggle with ever pervasive violence from errant students; and when the shrinking world is ever more dependent upon the guidance of insightful men and woman, we find in the midst of our entertainment industries ... natural born traitors.
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