Big Movie Flashback: ‘Natural Born Killers’ (1994)
by Christian TotoDirector Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” is aging as badly as the Aussie-fied mullet Robert Downey Jr. sports in the 1994 media satire.
Loud, brash and in your face, this collage of film stocks, styles and sensibilities made some critics squeal with delight during its 1994 release. Call that a chance to hop on the hip bandwagon, but looking back it’s clear “Killers” marked the start of Stone’s slow slide toward mediocrity.
“Killers” follows the infamous Mickey and Mallory (Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis) as they morph from amoral killers to media darlings. The two start out as lovebirds eager to taunt and terrorize the innocent, always leaving one person alive to spread their legend. They aren’t the most well thought out criminals, and before long they’re behind bars for their atrocities.
Even violent criminals can pick up celebrity cache if they play the media just right.
“Killers” came of age during the O.J. Simpson case, the Menendez trial and the clown-like antics of Long Island’s own Joey Buttafuoco. So we can forgive Stone for feeling less than charitable about the state of media. But “Killers” is such an over the top affair, so bloated with stylistic excess and Pacino-esque ranting that nothing resonates beyond an overwhelming sense of “ick.”
A media satire by design can’t be done with a sledgehammer approach, at least if that’s the only tool being applied to the screen. Even the best action films have quiet spells, solemn moments when the audience can catch its breath and prepare for the next stunt-filled extravaganza.
“Killers” is all exclamation points and bold type. Attempts to humanize the murderous couple fall hopelessly flat. Can we really feel Mickey and Mallory’s pain just because they both suffered at the hands of abusive parents? Rodney Dangerfield appears in the film’s lone flash of brilliance. He plays Mallory’s lecherous papa, sequences arranged like a sitcom pilot from hell complete with laugh track.
Harrelson transcends the noise long enough to carve something novel out of Mickey’s wicked ways. The actor’s brutish charisma holds the film together, just barely, while Stone asks the rest of his cast to perform as if a pack of firecrackers had just invaded their skivvies. Those intrigued by Lewis’ bad-girl performance should rent the severely underrated “Kalifornia” for a better look at her curious screen presence.
“Killers” began as a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, the pop culture junkie who later distanced himself from the production. We’re left to wonder what the “Pulp Fiction” auteur might have said differently than Stone, since very little of Tarantino’s patented wordplay made it into the final draft.
Robert Downey Jr. arrives mid-film to personify the soulless media vultures who thrive on tabloid trash. The future “Iron Man” nails the Steve Dunleavy accent – the Aussie reporter from “A Current Affair fame directly influenced Downey’s character. In a film teeming with one dimensional players, Downey’s reporter emerges as even more detestable than the titular “Killers.”
One can easily accuse Stone of glorifying the kind of violence he detests in the media as well as for letting Mickey and Mallory survive with their black souls unscathed.
“Natural Born Killers” arrived on Blu-ray two years ago along with scenes excised to ensure an R-rating. Such a bloated enterprise hardly needed more shock value. What’s left out here is the sense that Stone had something truly original to say other than, “I wish the media didn’t treat the Tonya Harding affair with the same intensity as the first Gulf War.”
It doesn’t take an Oscar-winning filmmaker to remind us of that.
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41 Comments
One of the most overrated films of the last twenty years. Viewing it gave me a splitting headache. And I loved 'Pulp Fiction', Reservoir Dogs' and 'Jackie Brown' (other Tarantino screenplays).
Thank you for this review.
Movie icky. Sitcom idea in movie, great. But the whole thing was repulsive. And I like blood, guts, and noise.
I wouldn't say this was a film that signified Stone was on a path to mediocrity, if anything films like NBK show Stone at his freakiest. His films have become more nuanced lately, and thus more boring. I like the Oliver Stone who would scream his themes straight at your face from start to finish in movies like this, JFK, and ANY GIVEN SUNDAY. Shrill? Yes. But completely fascinating his how he goes about it.
Never saw it – never had a desire to. Not even curious like I might be with other movies. Maybe because that scumbag Harrelson is involved..
How is he a scumbag? I never saw it either. Don't care for Stone or Tarantino.
Other than his personal life he advances every sort of depravity for a buck in his movies.
Don't care for Tarantino's scummy films, either.
Rodney Dangerfield definatly didn't do himself any favors by cameoing in this trashy flick. I didn't make it thru to the half way point.
I love Any Given Sunday … It bears little resemblance to the actual sport of football, but it's loud, over the top and, yes, shrill in the best of ways. Plus, great turns by Pacino and Jamie Foxx. Love the closing credits "retirement" speech!
The film works as a shoot-em-up flick with whacked-out visuals and twisted humor (Just about everything with Rodney Dangerfield in it) but it falls apart whenever it tries to do anything remotely intelligent.
Such as social commentary that never goes farther then tiresome cliches as *Paraphrasing* "None of this is our fault! We're only products of our environment!" and silliness in the form of slogans like "Too much Television" being displayed over the couple when they're visiting the Indian.
That and a cast of extremely loathsome characters do not do the film any favors. I see what Stone was trying to say about societies obsession with violence and crash tv, hell I even enjoyed the parts that rip on all the idiots that glamorize folks like Charles Manson and O.J. Simpson. But for all intents and purposes, the film was a mess.
I think that was the intent.
If it were like real football, it would be nowhere near as crazy. The fact that you feel like someone could get killed with each tackling and every sack makes it feel like the gladiator battles that Stone compares them with through his coked-up editing.
I think most of us will agree that Oliver Stone has had his share of great films. I don't know if he started to slide in to mediocrity as much as his brand became stale. Looking at his filmography, notice that there is no joy in ANY of his films. You have seen one Stone film you have seen them all, a familiar recipe of self-destruction, cynicism, and nihilism. Nothing wrong with making some films with those elements, but all of them? Even the most seemingly humorless of film makers like Kubrick have some sense of levity (albeit satirical) in their resume (i.e. Dr. Strangelove).
NBK may just have been the tipping point when we realized that transcending his own miserable brand was all but impossible for Mr. Stone, and we finally tuned out once and for all.
Sorry, wasn't a fan of AGS — Any Given Sunday to me was another exercise in Stone tossing a bunch of self-obsessed, unlikable characters into a story that is hard to care about – even if you are a big fan of the game.
The cameos of greats like YA Tittle and Johnny Unitas as coaches was probably the only redeemable thing for me. Well, that and Charlton Heston of course.
Woody is a major lefty, but that's beside the point – his father was a real life hit man who murdered a judge in Texas. Harrelson not only went around proclaiming his dad's innocence, he apparently does so to this day, which is why it's eerie to see him portray such a lifestyle in Natural Born Killers. He played a hit man in No Country for Old Men though it was extremely subdued and nothing like his role as Mickey. In the end it was nothing like Javier Bardem's role either which makes ya chuckle a bit if you've seen the excellent No Country.
There's a City Confidential episode about the judge's murder, by the way. I don't remember the exact title of it though.
Well, like he said, this was Tarantino in union rules only. The script was heavily rewritten and changed, so you really can't call it a Tarantino screenplay any more.
Wost movie ever!
Considering what we now seem to know about all that head trauma…
I had a poster of this movie on my wall when I was at the most self-destructive, depressed, narcissistic time of my life. When I was at the height of my hatred for God and love of all things profane I thought this movie was genius. I loved this movie when I was at my most liberal, progressive, and morally lost. I loved this movie when I thought abortion was great. I loved this movie when I hated my parents. I am so glad that I am no longer the kind of person who can enjoy Oliver Stone's pretentious and heavy-handed crap.
The movie that made shaky cam take off.
I tried watching it on cable.
The first time I got in about 10 minutes before the vertigo got too bad and I had to change the channel.
The second I made it about 5 minutes.
I never bothered trying a third time.
It looks like I didn't miss anything.
Anyone read the book about this film called "Killer Instinct?"
From all accounts this film was more of a controlled crash rather than a smooth flight. The director was high out of his mind. The producers were green. And the Cinematographer was borderline insane. And the someone was tortured for a final script.
Big budget 90's filmmaking in a nut shell?
I hated this film. But that's pretty normal for me since I hate most films that the critics love.
Oliver Stone has made some amazing films (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July) despite his politics, but even as a guy who likes to think he can enjoy well made movies despite their message, I thought NBK was garbage just because as Mr. Toto notes, the moral message is confused.
Don't mistake luck, career timing, and tone-deafness for talent. His 'over the top style' is not a style at all. Its what happens when a screenwriter and director isn't a natural born storyteller.
"…Stone’s slow slide toward mediocrity."
Defying gravity, he is?
How is it possible to slide up?
"Platoon" was popular with virtually everyone who had not spent time in uniform in Viet Nam.
Those of us who did generally think it is a POS.
No, I meant actual, physical head trauma football players suffer that the NFL seems to finally be acknowledging the long-term effects of.
It bored the hell out of me. If you want to see the same thing done better, rent "Serial Mom" w/ Kathleen Turner and Sam Waterston.
Same theme, much funnier.
I had a friend who went through 3 tours. He came over one day when Platoon was on cable. He looked at the soldier with the Marlborors in his helmet webbing and commented, "Nice target."
Seconded. Serial mom is an excellent, though all but forgotten, film
Toto – "Even violent criminals can pick up celebrity cache…"
They might even pick up some cachet.
wow… haven't thought about serial mom in a while, but definitely am going to be watching again soon. Kathleen Turner was hilarious in it.
I saw this when it came out and for me, the point of no return was when Robert Downey, Jr., picked up a machine gun and joined in the fun, blazing away with abandon. The Oliver Stone that I enjoyed with Wall Street lost me at that point and I have never come back.
I believe you just summarized Stone's entire fan base. Also, I'm glad you smartened up.
The biggest issue is it became that which it preached against. You can't have it both ways Oliver. And thanks for mentioning Kalifornia. Not many people know that movie.
True. In the Tarantino version the ending was supposed to be that Micky and Mallory were to be shown in an RV driving away but they stop to pick up a hitchhicker who turns out to be a killer who murders them both. Kind of a live by the sword die by the sword ending.
The movie suffers greatly because Stone and the cast were all using LSD during the filming of the movie. That's according to Stone and Lewis among others.
I've tried to watch this film a few times but I always fall asleep 1/2 way through it. I see it as a kind of dark comedy like A Clockwork Orange is. You can't take it seriously.
Then you've never seen Battlefield Earth. Compared to Battlefield Earth NBK is Gone with the Wind. LOL
I worked with a Dr. who was a medic in Nam. We asked him one day which movie got it like the real deal (this was right after Platoon came out) and he said, without batting an eye, Apocalypse Now. He said Platoon was entertainment and garbage.
Thankfully no one saw Mr. Travolta's Scientology flop.
But Oliver Stone's bloodbath did make some $$.
Oliver will film kids killing each other, as long as he can make $$.
Platoon is to the Viet Nam War as Rocky IV is to heavyweight championship boxing. Oliver Stone's story of the experience of a US Army platoon in Viet Nam in 1968 is so overdone it's laughable. While most or all of the occurrences in Platoon did occur over the 10+ year span of US military involvement in Viet Nam, to portray these things happening to one small group of men in such a short time frame (weeks) gives a horribly skewed picture of the war. In Platoon, the men of the platoon see all of the following in the course of a week or two: US soldiers murdering civilians, US Soldiers raping civilians, a US NCO murdering another US NCO, a US Enlisted Man murdering a US SGT, US soldiers killed/wounded by friendly fire, 90%+ killed or wounded in the platoon. For Stone to try to pass this film off as the typical experience of a US soldier in Viet Nam is a disgrace. It's the ultimate cartoonish portrayal of the war.
I think JFK used shaky cam before Natural Born Killers, curiously enough Stone directed both of them.
I don't know if that's big budget 90's filmmaking in a nutshell, but it IS a summary of Oliver Stone's film career.
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