Jan 17, 2004 07:46 AM
2220 Views
(Updated Jan 17, 2004 12:42 PM)
A few months back I was watching a preview on Kill Bill on Channel Four. It was said that Kill Bill happens to be the most violent movies ever made. I guess the presenters missed to watch Natural Born Killers. Oliver Stone decided to make one of Tarantino's early screenplays into a film. It seems Tarantino was not too happy with the changes Stone wanted to make so he distanced himself from this project. Most violent and gory movie I've ever watched, would I recommend NBK? Yes, but with a warning label for those who find Kill Bill too violent and Pulp Fiction too gory. In terms of violence, NBK is leagues ahead of the other Tarantino and Oliver Stone flicks.
Plot: Welcome to the world of Mickey(Woody Harrelson) and Mallory(Juliette Lewis) Knox. Mickey and Mallory Knox are the best thing that happened to each other and to mass murderers since Manson. The two lovers get married and go on a killing spree, starting with Mallory's parents (Rodney Dangerfield and Edie McClurg). They leave one survivor every time they commit a mass murder so someone can tell the tale of Mickey and Mallory. On their journey they kill 52 victims and become national celebrities thanks mainly to the efforts of a mad tabloid TV host Wayne Gale(Robert Downey Jr.), who boosts them into the lime light. After a number of hallucinatory adventures on the road, the couple are eventually captured and imprisoned. On the Superbowl Sunday, the biggest pre-planned media event of the year, Gale interviews Mickey live in the middle of a prison. In an eruptive series of sequences, Gale and the crew find themselves in the middle of a frighteningly chaotic and deadly prison riot, as Mickey and Mallory attempt to make a bloody march to freedom. Stone demonstrates how much these two monsters, the murderer and the media, exist in a symbiotic relationship, as Gale, who will do anything for the story of his career, actually helps Mickey and Mallory in their quest for freedom. Shortly after they escape Mickey and Mallory kill the TV show host leaving the video camera as the survivor to tell the tale.
As a satire on the media's infatuation with violence and murderers, Natural Born Killers hits the bullseye. The script is very original and praiseworthy. Though I think Quentin Tarantino’s original script is superior to the treated script, the final product is not mediocre in the least. The characters of Mickey and Mallory are developed fully, allowing us to witness first hand bits and pieces of a radical philosophy and lifestyle. This film is very energetic, almost like the beginning of ''A Clockwork Orange'' maintained for over two hours.
The really disturbing parts of the film are the ways in which Mickey and Mallory kill their victims. Their murders are commited to flashy imagery and rock music. Stone was really going for the statement that violence on TV promote violence in people and not the other way round. Ironically, the film was banned in several countries and after a brief time in the cinema it was banned on video.
Harrelson was convincing as Mickey Knox. There is a degree of coldness in his face. Juliette Lewis is terrific as Mallory Knox. Robert Downey Jr. is hysterically funny as the talkshow host. There are some more characters that I haven't talked about in the plot. Tom Sizemore, as the psycho-cop who kills a woman for the thrill of it and Tommy Lee Jones, the warden, is a smarmy, weasel of a man who’s also caught up in himself, and plans to write the ending to the couple’s story his way.
As its said about Tarantino, ''You either love him or you loathe him, but you cannot ignore him'', the same applies to this movie. Again, if you think Kill Bill was too violent and Pulp Fiction was too gory, keep away from NBK.
