Review of Natural Born Killers (1994) by Luis V — 21 Dec 2011

A hard-core violent film. Natural Born Killers takes place in a country in which the bad guys take up the fame and glory. Mickey Knox and Mallery Wilson are those notorious killers whom simply kill just for the pleasure for it. The police have some difficulty in finding them since they randomly kill anyone and the media is on his trail in order to make this guys more famous and get their ratings up. One night they finally get captured, and the media wants to interview them, while they are interviewing them it shows how empathy we show towards crooks and criminals.

The movie is an excellent analysis of how the media supports criminals in order to raise their ratings. It?s a symbolism of how society loves to see in the news something terrible instead of something good. It also shows the consequences of helping people that are bad, you shouldn?t help people that are evil because no matter you do with them they will never see you as someone valuable. Killers are like snakes that bite you no matter if you save them or not. The killers reprent what Bonnie and Clyde were, even to they were criminals they were considered heroes; they were loved by the community. It shows how irresponsible as we as a community are by supporting the bad guy. I think one of the best scenes in this movie is when Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr.) interviews Mickey (Woody Harlerson) in the prison. When it?s over Wayne thanks the killer for saying Natural Born Killer so that the ratings are up and doesn?t realize the chaos he has created with the interview. The film contains a great cast of actors like Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Rodney Dangerfield, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Sizemore and Tommy Lee Jones.

The performances were good but some of them were overrated. Woody Haralson and Juliette Lewis as the lead villains are seriously good in their performances, they steal the show. The performances by Robert and Tommy were over the top, I mean they show emotion but they were speaking way too much fast that I didn?t understand what they were talking about. They were talking like if they just eaten a hot spicy pepper.

The problem with the movie was its focus, I didn?t know but they were having way too many characters in this movie, the killers, the reporters and the warden, they were some things happening at the same time they you got lost. I seriously didn?t understood why Oliver Stone put some commercial ads in the movie, it concentrates on the story then it jumps to an add like if this movie was made for a television series. I hated the cinematography in this movie because it constantly changed from color to black/white cinematography, I loved it in the beginning of this movie but they use it too much that it got nauseating. The style of the movie is like if you were watching a Grindhouse movie, with all those weird angle shots. The film sort of alienates you because there is not even a good guy in this movie, there is a cop whom tortures a woman and gets away with it.

The film was directed by Oliver Stone and is based on a story written by Quentin Tarantino. He has received three Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express (1978), and Best Director for Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). The film was banned completely in Ireland (though since unbanned). Entertainment Weekly ranked the film as the 8th Most Controversial Movie Ever. From almost the moment of its release, the film has been accused of encouraging and inspiring numerous murderers in North America, including the Columbine High School Massacre.

I recommend this movie to people that love action movies because you will be entertained by the sequences of this movie. If you are a person that likes to see strong yet though-provoking movie then Natural Born Killers is the one for you. Don?t this movie as the consequences of murder but the consequences of helping a killer. This film due to its brutal content like a graphic murder is not for kids.