Natural Born Killers. 1994. Directed by Oliver Stone.

(9/26/00)

As satire, it doesn't work. Not for me, anyway. Bloody mass murder is too horrible to poke fun at. It is true that the media exploits violence for ratings. It is true that the ideal families portrayed in TV sitcoms are--to a greater or lesser degree--a myth. But it's not funny and Rodney Dangerfield doesn't make it so.

Possibly, what undermines Natural Born Killers as satiore is that the violence and the menace is just too effective, too powerful. I remember that when I saw it in 1994 images and moments from the film stayed with me for a long time. I get the feeling that Oliver Stone was unaware of the sheer power of his images. It didn't have that much impact on me the second time around.

It is a web of editing and special effects which effectively give the film a hallucinatory quality. Images are projected onto the mirrors of motel rooms; Mickey and Mallory ride in a car in color while the rear-projection footage is in black-and-white. As in some of Stone's other films there is a mixing of black-and-white and colorfootage. The resulting film is agitated.

Once again, sex is linked with violence and death. I think the most unpleasant and frightening moment in this regard is Mallory's shooting of law officer Scagnetti who has just been starting to get physical with her. She says, "Do you still like me?" just before she pulls the trigger.

All of this killing seems to be linked with a desire for self-destruction. Mallory talks about being in the sky with the stars. The idea I get from this is that she wants to die so that she can be in a space in which she no longer has to fear violence and death.

Mickey and Mallory both wax poetic at one time or another. And when Mickey is interviewed for a special edition of American Maniacs he comes across as wise, relaxed, at peace with himself. He accepts himself as what he is--a killer. That scene really frightens me.

One episode that had an impact on me in 1994 was the scene with the Indian. The Indian doesn't speak English and we see his words to his son as subtitles. He sees a demon in Mickey, but says that Mallory has the "sad sickness." He turns to help her by doing some sort of ritual and Mickey kills him. Mallory is very upset by this. She pounds at Mickey, calling him "bad" and saying, "He took us in--he fed us."

That's probably the most moving scene in the whole film. Mallory still has what we normally take as "human values" and can respond to genuine kindness. We keep seeing images of a demon associated with Mickey, so perhaps there is truth in what the Indian says and that good and evil fought over Mallory's soul, with good losing. Maybe not, though, since Mickey tells the interviewer that Mallory taught him to love and "only love can saly the demon." But--and I think this is important--it sounds like a glib cliche when he says it.

But I like the Indian's description of Mallory as having the "sad sickness." When his son asks if she can be helped he replies, "Some people don't want to be helped."

And I don't know what to make of that crazy ending in which Mickey and Mallory escape, leave a video to complete their legend, and go on their way to live some semblance of a normal life. Perhaps it was intended as one last sick joke, but it ain't funny. But this film certainly does succeed at being disturbing.

(9/28/00-10/2/00)

A couple of more thoughts about Natural Born Killers:

I think one moment which works very well is when, towards the end, we watch images from a television set. As the stations are changed we see images of current events which clearly demonstrate America's fascination with violence: Tonya Harding, O. J. Simpson, I didn'trecognize the others, although one might be Lorena Bobbitt. There is also a memorable scene in which a police officer roughs up a prostitute he has picked up, again linking sex with violence and also showing us the dark side of one of our authority figures. At least he's experiencing this side with a professional.

Then there is the character of the tele-journalist, played by Robert Downey, Jr. I don't know what to make of tyhis character, except that he seems to be caught up in the sheer energy of the media frenzy. At the end, during the riot, he seems to go over the edge and wants to be a murderer himself--or is this just a ruse to save his skin? Mickey tells him that he's a scumbag, that all he cares about is ratings. This sort of implies that Mickey is somehow superior because, even though he's a killer, he's "pure" about it. But it is hypocrisy because Mickey is concerned with publicity and image himself. He's very interested in how the show about him on American Maniacs did in the ratings compared with those on other killers. And he always--almost always--leaves someone alive at the scene ofthe crime to "tell the tale."

Another interesting character is Jack Scagnetti, law enforcement officer and media darling. I couldn't hear most of his dialogue in the prison, but there seems to be a plot in which he is to accompany Mickey and Mallory as they are being moved from one institution to another and make sure that they are eliminated en route. This shows a shameful disregard for due process of law--yet it seems to be the right thing to do. Perhaps this is Stone's way of implicating the audience.

The film actually does touch on important philosophical questions, especially in Mickey's interview when he points out that killing saturates the natural world, that creatures and people are carrying out a part in a design that they know nothing about. These are the kinds of questions one expects to find in an Ingmar Bergman film. Here, they are presented in a pop context.