NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Oliver Stone Writers: Richard Rutowski, David Veloz, and Oliver Stone (based on a script by Quentin Tarantino) Starring: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Sizemore, Tommy Lee Jones, Rodney Dangerfield, Edie McClurg, Bathalzar Getty, Steven Wright, Arliss Howard, Ashley Judd, Rachel Ticotin, Denis Leary, Mark Harmon, Jared Harris
"Natural Born Killers" is a tough flick to review. On one hand, the message that is to be presented - that the media glorifies serial killers too much, and one day it's going to self destruct into a giant stream of pandemonium. But on the other hand, the film's first half has almost nothing to do with the second half, thus quieting some of the blows the second half tries to pull off. Yes, the film manages to bring its brilliant view to the screen, and the message is conveyed. But something is missing. So, this is basically a flawed masterpiece.
As the films previews and general media and contreversy over this state, this is a film about two serial killers who capture the eye of the media, making everyone seem to love them. The serial killers in this film, named Mickey and Mallory (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis, respectively), are hick young adults who kill Mallory's parents, and head off on a long killing spree, where 52 innocent or not-so-innocent people are brutally killed.
The media jumps in on it when they are discovered, represented by a hyprekinetic Aussie journalist named Wade Gale (Robert Downey Jr) who hosts a TV show called "American Maniacs," which not only presents coverage on serial killers past and present, but also glorifies the hell out of them. We don't learn a lot about Wade, since he's basically a characateur (and rightfully so), but we do learn that he is the stereotypical view on the reporter: selfish, egotistical ("Where are the close-ups of ME?!," he screams out once), and amoral. I mean, the guy's not only married to the daughter of a rich man because he got her pregnant, but he also has a mistress.
The film starts off with what seems to be a typical Mickey-and-Mallory bloodbath: the two are in a little diner, are provoked by a couple rednecks, then take everyone out except for one (chosen in a horrifyingly sadistic, not to mention darkly comic, game of "Eeeny, Meeeny, Miny, Moe!" - I'm trying my best to spell these, folks), who is the chosen to tell the tale. It's a wonderfully done scene, filled with lots of black comedy (shots on a bullet about to hit a woman's head, then stops, then shows blood flying against the wall), lots of cool violence (again the bullet and the woman), and even some great music (a great chick punk tune blares out on the soundtrack). It's glorification of what they do fits in perfectly with the movie, as we see the real Mickey and Mallory viewed in the way a movie would present them, although an Oliver Stone flick, judging from the style.
>From here, though, the film looses its way for about an hour. Instead of viewing the message that's supposed to be given here, Stone goes off on an ADD-filled ride. We see how they started out (in a brilliant although kind of useless sequence where her family life is viewed as an American sitcom, complete with a laugh-track). We see how they met, how they killed her horrible father (Rodney Dangerfield, great job) and her passive though chiken mother (Edie McClurg). Now this was a problem I had with the movie: I felt bad that they killed the mother. I was happy when Mickey beat the hell out of the father (that guy gets NO respect...sorry, bad joke). But the mother was merely scared of him. Of course she didn't do anything - the father would have kicked the hell out of her. I mean, I shouldn't have felt bad for the mother dying, I guess.
The film introduces Wade, his crew, and his stupid TV show, but then drops him and goes off with Mickey and Mallory for a bit. This is where it really goes wrong. The film tries to explain the two, how they fight for no reason, how they felt bad for the accidental killing of an Indian who tried to help them. But this fails. The scene where they are caught at a "Drug Zone" where they are buying some poison-killer since they were bitten by rattlesnakes is effective, with a Rodney King-esque beating at the end, and a lot of great mood and composition.
Here is where the film goes right and doesn't wimp out until the final credit has rolled by. We see them in prison after a year, seperated, and Wade wants to do a live interview with Mickey after the superbowl, mainly for high ratings. For the final hour, we get the mayhem the film has been waiting to deliver. The story's boiler erupts, and we see what happens when all these elements are mixed together. The broadcast of the interview prompts a large-scale prison riot, and in this mayhem, Mickey takes out all but two guards, and takes Wade and what's left of his crew hostage on his search for Mallory's cell, the woman he hasn't seen for an entire year.
The ending is brilliant, with great symbolism, and brings the film to an almost satisfying conclusion, if it weren't for the lackluster first half.
Anyway, the style of the film is definitely different than anything I've ever seen before in a big-budget film. Oliver Stone, who is famous for his quick editing (which was used to perfection in "JFK"), kind of overdoes it. Yes, I know what he was getting at with switching between black/white and color, regular Hollywood cameras and super 8, live actoin and cartoons. But for all its worth, it's pretty headache enducing. He sometimes switches things at wrong times, and I kind of feel bad for the actors and crew, since they would probably do a couple lines, then switch it off and get a whole new camera. And I pity the man who had to edit this goddam thing.
The acting is very good, if not sometimes cartoonish. Olvier Stone has said the film is supposed to be that way, since it's a ludicrous situation. He's right. It's a fable, and any way to tell it in some kind of gritty, realistic way would ruin the impact of the film. Anyway, Woody and Juliette are a fantastic couple, each with his or her great perks. Robert Downey Jr and Tommy Lee Jones REALLY go for the high camp, and I can't even decide which one was more so. I'm not saying they were bad, just a tad high on the cartoonish. I mean, when Robert Downey Jr. talks about Elton John confessing his bisexuality to Rolling Stone, he really goes so overboard that he makes Mickey look sane. I also want to talk about how funny Steven Wright was, playing a psychologist being interviewed by Wade...well, that was pretty much it.
I didn't like this film that much the first time I saw it. It was right in the middle of my obsession with Quentin, and I couldn't believe that Stone would be dissing Tarantino's original script so much. I've read the Quentin version, and I kind of like it better (the whole first half is pure Stone), but I'm glad Stone directed this, 'cause it wouldn't be as good with Tarantino directing. But anyway, the second time I saw it, it was the director's cut, and that, mixed with the fact that I was a little over my Quentin obsession, I actually liked it.
With the director's cut, we get some extra footage that didn't make the theater version of the film for various reasons. Interlaced with the film are a couple brutal shots, like more of Woody raping that one hostage, and a shot of Tommy Lee Jones's decapitated head on a stick. But we also get some extra full scenes afterwards, narrated by Stone himself.
The one that really got me was a further explanation of the Indian-killing part. This seemed to deepen it, even if I found it kind of unnecessary to the message of the film, but he took it out for "time limiatations" (???). There's also a scene where Mickey kills a witness (Ashley Judd) during their trial, and a totally unnecessary albeith entertaining bit where Denis Leary gives a rant to the camera. We also see the alternate ending, where Mickey and Mallory are killed by the guardian angel guy (Arliss Howard), but the other ending was chosen (thank god).
To bring a long story to a quick close, "Natural Born Killers" is basically a flawed masterpiece, but at least gives its message across. I'm not up for giving it a perfect rating, nor am I up for awarding it a crap one, but since the positive things outweigh the negative, I'm giving it a thumb up rating.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews