Natural Born Killers

Bizarre, acerbic to the extreme and highly overhyped, Natural Born Killers is like a Bonnie and Clyde for the ’90s – quick, quirky and not all that satisfying nor interesting.

Mickey (Harrelson) and Mallory (Lewis) are a married couple on a killing spree across small-town USA. With the law (Sizemore) and the media (Downey Jr.) on their tale, the killers engender a public frenzy, presenting themselves as the kind of sociopathic individuals that the public loves to hate.

Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis play the two killers with a semblance of insanity, both appearing to be the kind of individual that could and would flip and kill. Harrelson is the heart of this film; just look at the poster for proof. The traditionally top-notch actor is great here (one of the few shining lights actually), and it’s disturbing to think Harrelson is so convincing as the suave and dangerous Mickey. Juliette Lewis has disappeared from Hollywood for a while, but this performance is proof that at the onset of the ‘90s she was one of the more promising actresses. She combines innocence and cold-blooded psychopathy in Mallory, Mickey’s partner in crime and wife, but in comparison with Harrelson her performance somewhat suffers, which is a shame. Robert Downey Jr., as sycophant TV personality Wayne Gale gives the film its greatest satirical moments, and you can see even here just how good an actor Downey was. Tom Sizemore does little more than mug around onscreen as Scagnetti, the cop after the couple, whilst Tommy Lee Jones plays insane (Two Face insane) as the prison warden of Mallory and Mickey towards the conclusion of the movie. Rodney Dangerfield is perhaps the most impressive performance here, as Mallory’s abusive, repugnant father, the comedian presenting the idea that he can act seriously and be perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of the movie.

Oliver Stone tries to upset the establishment again, and did with this movie. It’s a shame that more people didn’t recognise it for the satire that it was, but despite this, the film is bizarre and suffers from too little focus. Many people will let the bombardment of images and dialogue wash over them, and this is a shame given that Tarantino wrote the script – this collaboration between two of Hollywood’s more maverick, edgy filmmakers should have been far better. Stone decided to shoot the film in a quasi-documentary style, and intersperses jump cuts and flashes of subliminal images. Whilst I get his point, it doesn’t mean that it makes the film easy to watch or understand; rather, the satire is lost amongst the hyperactive edits and stupid vignettes that intersperse the main action. If he’d shot the film straight, as I actually expected him to have, it may have been more enjoyable.

For a Tarantino-scripted film, there are no extended conversations on esoteric subjects, but it’s easy to spot the Quentin-infused dialogue here, and when it’s needed, it works. With a soundtrack masterminded by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, it’s no surprise that the film’s soundtrack employs edgy, diverse music, and even features some of the performer’s early music. Ravaging murderers and the dark, gothic metal of NIN gel perfectly together, and this is one of the standout tenements of the movie. As with the direction, it can be said that Stone is aiming to satirise above all here, and in the unbelievable bevy of visuals on display, it can clearly be seen that the director is mocking the advertising agencies and MTV-style TV channels (rapid cuts and wipes aplenty). But, again as I said before, this is detrimental to the film at large, and as a result the more subtle imagery is lost.

The film is, to me, a failure. I expected too much of it, I know this now, but it’s apparent in watching it that the film doesn’t know which way to go, nor how far the satire should go.

4/10