Taglines: The Media made them superstars.
Natural Born Killers movie storyline. Delivery boy Mickey Knox falls in love with customer Mallory Wilson. He soon helps her kill her abusive father and enabling mother, beginning their macabre journey down Route 666. Their M.O.: every few miles, they attack everyone within their site, invariably leaving only one person alive to tell the tale.
The two are made famous by unscrupulous reporter Wayne Gale, as they run across the countryside, pursued by the equally sadistic Jack Scagnetti. Just before the trial, a ratings-whoring interview by the same reporter who made them famous leads to pandemonium, not just within the prison itself, but nationwide. A satire of the media, public opinion, and the modern attitude toward violence.
Natural Born Killers is a 1994 American satirical crime film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Sizemore, and Tommy Lee Jones. The film was released in the United States on August 26, 1994. The film tells the story of two victims of traumatic childhoods who became lovers and mass murderers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
The film is based on an original screenplay by Quentin Tarantino that was heavily revised by writer David Veloz, associate producer Richard Rutowski, and director Stone; Tarantino received story credit. Jane Hamsher, Don Murphy, and Clayton Townsend produced the film, with Arnon Milchan, Thom Mount, and Stone as executive producers.
The film was released theatrically on August 26, 1994 in the United States, February 24, 1995 and premiered on Venice Film Festival on August 29, 1994. The film was a box office success, grossing over $50 million against a production budget of $34 million, and received generally mixed to positive reviews, who praised the cast’s performances, the movie’s humor, plot, and combination of action and romance, but found the film much too violent and graphic. Notorious for its violent content and inspiring “copycat” crimes, the film was named the eighth most controversial film in history by Entertainment Weekly in 2006.
In its opening weekend, Natural Born Killers grossed a total of $11,166,687 in 1,510 theaters. As of January 12, 2007, the film had grossed a total of $50,282,766 domestically, compared to its $34 million budget.
About the Style
Natural Born Killers is shot and edited in a frenzied and psychedelic style consisting of black and white, animation, and other unusual color schemes, and employing a wide range of camera angles, filters, film stocks, lenses, and special effects. Much of the film is told via parodies of television shows, including a scene (I Love Mallory) presented in the style of a sitcom about a dysfunctional family. Commercials which were commonly on the air at the time of the film’s release make brief, intermittent appearances. In his DVD director’s commentary, Stone goes into great detail about the look of the film, explaining scene by scene why a particular look was chosen for a particular scene.
According to Hollywood.com, Natural Born Killers is a satirical crime film, while Foster Hirsch deemed it “the crime film as would-be social and cultural satire”. Stone considered it his road film, specifically naming Bonnie and Clyde as a source of inspiration. The famous death scene in Bonnie and Clyde used innovative editing techniques provided by multiple cameras shot from different angles at different speeds; this sporadic interchange between fast-paced and slow-motion editing that concludes Arthur Penn’s film is used throughout the entirety of Natural Born Killers.
Furthermore, both films fall under the road film genre through their constant challenges of the society in which the characters live. While Bonnie and Clyde attempt to disintegrate the weakened economic and social landscape of the 1930s, Mickey and Mallory try to free America from the overarching conventions which influence the common masses, primarily the media. However, whilst Bonnie and Clyde concludes with a pessimistic outlook regarding individual freedom within the American sphere of influence, Oliver Stone sees Natural Born Killers as having an optimistic finale.
Natural Born Killers movie trailer.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Directed by: Oliver Stone
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Rodney Dangerfield, Jared Harris, O-Lan Jones, Robert Downey Jr., Richard Lineback, Russell Means
Screenplay by: Richard Rutowski, Oliver Stone, David Veloz
Production Design by: Victor Kempster
Cinematography by: Robert Richardson
Film Editing by: Brian Berdan, Hank Corwin
Costume Design by: Richard Hornung
Set Decoration by: Merideth Boswell
Art Direction by: Alan Tomkins, Margery Zweizig
Music by: Brent Lewis
MPAA Rating: R for extreme violence and graphic carnage, for shocking images, and for strong language and sexuality.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: August 26, 1994
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