I’ve always heard that NBK was a polarizing film, and having seen it, I can certainly see why. I’m not even sure if I loved it or thought it was a pretentious, self important wankfest…well, no, that’s not true. I’m positive it was a pretentious wankfest, but I actually really enjoyed it in spite of that, and for all the wrong reasons.
I got the impression, watching this, that Oliver Stone was trying to manipulate me into liking Mickey and Mallory for the sole purpose of aligning me with their “fan club” on the courthouse steps, which was meant to make me question how I view violent criminals. This irritated me. I don’t mind a movie manipulating my emotions, that’s what movies do, but I don’t appreciate the director trying to make me feel like a bad person for going along with it.
The thing about this movie was, Mickey and Mallory didn’t inhabit anything resembling the real world. Most of their victims acted like cartoon characters, and none actually felt anything like real people. They were the only characters in which you could reasonably invest any interest. Even the Shaman they killed halfway through the movie basically hung a lantern on his own stupidity for taking them in (“Bitch, you knew I was a snake when you picked me up!”). Okay, maybe the pharmacist. I felt a little bad for him, but this was 2/3s of the way through the movie!
Everyone was teeth grindingly over the top - do you know how hard it is to get me to hate Robert Downey Jr? It takes a lot, I’ll tell you. The music video style editing was obnoxious as hell. I think that Stone wanted to give the feel of channel surfing (media is evil, you know. Too much TV.), but I found it distracting. And yet, I liked it a lot. Great soundtrack, good acting from Harrelson and Lewis. Dangerfield was the only thing I actually found shocking, and his first scene was one of the best of the movie. Mostly, though, I liked it as a twisted love story. I liked that Mickey and Mallory’s love was so strong and passionate that a jail cell couldn’t keep them apart. I was oddly happy for them as the drove away in their Winnabego with their kids in the back. Looking at how the movie presented them, it’s a perfectly reasonable response. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that Stone was waving his finger in my face and saying ‘shame on you!’
Natural Born Killers was the first rented movie I refused to finish watching. I can’t remember much about it except that I found it repulsive. I think I lasted about 30 minutes before I ejected it from the VCR.
I absolutely loved it in its original release. IIRC, it was the same year as Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction, and I thought it was better than both of those at the time. I watched again, or attempted to, about 6 years ago, and my god, it did not hold up. Preachy, pretentious wankery.
If audiences need to be confronted with their participation in violent entertainment, I don’t much like the way Oliver Stone went about it. If he made a realistic movie, set in a realistic universe about killers in love, and I found myself invested in them, then I might feel like taking stock in my values, but he didn’t. He made a violent cartoon. A fairly entertaining violent cartoon, but a cartoon. Hell, Tommy Lee Jones was practically Daffy Duck by the end!
Everything in NBK sets the audience up to eventually root for Mickey and Mallory. They’re the only three dimensional characters in the film. They’re the only characters with any relatable motivation and backstories. So I liked them, and I didn’t feel repulsive about it.
I don’t like most violent movies - I actually stayed away from this one because it was supposed to be so heinous, but I’ve seen other movies that were way worse, like Scarface, which was also Oliver Stone, I think.
And, no, it didn’t hold up well. It might be the most 90’s film I’ve ever seen, next to Clueless.
I got the impression (from the prison interview) that Mickey himself was disgusted with all of his fans.
In the interview, he basically said with regards to violence: “MY daddy had it, his daddy had it.” He was saying he never had a chance. He had an excuse for being the way he is. But what excuses does his fans have? Why don’t they focus more on love?
So yeah, there’s an underlying message. If you don’t like that sort of thing I can see why you didn’t like the movie.
Personally, it’s one of my all time favorites. Partly, because it’s greatly misunderstood.
I disagree with the OP. I don’t think we were ever meant to like Mickey and Mallory. They were a hyperbole. The M&M fans were meant to show us what we look like when we give so much media attention to things like the OJ trail. (which was current at the time)
The prison riot was pretty bad ass. The murders leading up to it were just depressing and overdone. It didn’t mean anything, and there are hundreds of violent movies that are more entertaining.
Ah yes… Natural Born Killers. I went to see this when it was released. I had looked forward to it because of the cast and the subject matter but about 30 minutes after the film started I walked out thinking to myself “Well, this will forever be the film that even LSD couldn’t save.” And that’s been true until another film joined it’s ranks back in 2009.
I hated this movie when I saw it. To this day I feel Oliver Stone owes me a refund, but, otoh, I know of at least two people who when it was new and in theaters got out of a showing and got back in line to buy a ticket to the next available showing.
I’d love to see the movie Tarantino would have made. I have the feeling it would be only vaguely similar. (I’m trying to think of any Oliver Stone movie I’ve liked other than Platoon- I can think of several I couldn’t stand (this, Alexander the Great, Savages), one I think was okay but is a wildly overrated timepiece due to one line (Wall Street), but Platoon is the only one I watched and liked. Which makes me wonder if I watched it again would I still like it or was it bad too.
I wonder what specifically he hated about it: the laugh track or the casting or, what exactly.
I rewatched this movie a month or two back (for the first time since renting it on VHS in the 90’s).
Pretentious, self important wankfest sums it up pretty well. Hopefully in another 15-20 years I’ll remember and save myself the bother of watching it again.
I think it’s a film that’s overwrought, over caffeinated, and a mishmash of obvious criticisms about media.
But the style back then–the jumping around of styles, formats, grains, associative imagery–was really quite remarkable for a mainstream movie back then. It’s a blitzkrieg of visual input that’s become more and more familiar over the years, but it was like a shot of adrenaline. All style over substance, but some very funny self-aware performances (Woody & Juliette are great and I think RDJ is hilarious) and a fabulous music assembly. The soundtrack is one of my favorites of song compilations for a film.
Plus, it hands down has the best use of “Carmina Burana” ever on film–because it’s the only one that doesn’t use the warhorse “O Fortuna” but actually uses the rollicking, drinking song “In Taberna Quando Sumus” to very sly, subversive effect.
And I guess that’s why I’m OK with the movie overall–because there’s a handful of little golden moments throughout (usually associated with the music–Cowboy Junkies, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, etc) that simply work, even if the larger package is a royal mess. YMMV, of course.
Question: Does Oliver Stone always make such bloated movies? Of his filmography, I’ve seen this and Alexander (which I thought was bad, but not as bad as word of mouth), but I understand they’re both considered his worst. If I want a good representation of Stone as a director, what should I watch? Platoon, maybe?
I’ve slept on it a few days and I’m reevaluating my position. If NBK had a saving grace, it’s that it was never boring, but I don’t think I liked it. I really, really wanted to, but it’s a mess, especially the editing. I do still sort of like Mickey and Mallory, though. shrug
[quote=edwards_beardInteresting note: The Rodney Dangerfield scene is what made Quentin Tarantino leave the theater and have his name removed from the screenplay.[/quote]
That was the best scene in the movie. I wonder why.
