The Media
and the desensitizing effects of television
 
 
Natural Born Killers is a fascinating film directed by Oliver Stone, starring Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey J.R. and Tommy Lee Jones. Independent film savior Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay for Natural Born Killers in which Oliver Stone, Richard Rutowski and David Veloz extensively edited. Terribly unhappy and just plain pissed off with this new rendering, Quentin Tarantino publicly disowned the script and asked that his name be removed from the films final credits, but with no avail. By in large, Natural Born Killers intends to highlight the sensationalized way that crime is depicted by the media and the way killers are regarded as cultural heroes and the press highly criticized it for its excessively use of graphic violence. In the film Mickey and Mallory are a kismet drawn couple who travel across the southwestern United States on a murdering spree, and together ultimately slaughter over 50 victims throughout the course of the film. Following them through out the film are two characters who have an obsessively morbid interest in them both. Detective Jack Scagnetti, (Sizemore) an equally unstable police detective who wants to achieve hero status by capturing the pair, midway through the film it is revealed that Scagnetti has had a lifelong and personal personal obsession with serial killers. And journalist, Wayne Gale (Downey) who hosts a show called 'American Maniacs', which profiles serial killers. During a pivotal scene toward the film end in which Mickey( Harrelson) gives a speech about how killing is simply a normal part of humanity and describes his enlightenment through the murders he commits, declares himself a “ natural born killer ”. The running theme of the film revolves around the role television has on society. Stone illustrated his point in both actual television sets and also, with projected television images. And under the mesmerizing and often dizzying direction by the film-veteran, Natural Born Killers is photographed in a variety of style treatments including, 16mm and 35mm film stocks, 3D animation, archived footage, rear projection and of course live action, which all beautifully interweave seamlessly together. One of Natural Born Killers most under-appreciated qualities lay within the narrative structure itself, told essentially as a television show, both in the way we watch it and in the way the character's think. Some of the more obvious examples of the character's TV-filtered narratives are the flashback sequences where Mickey and Mallory met one another, called I Love Mallory, where the reality of Mallory's unloving and abusive home is set against laugh tracks with a 50’s sitcom attitude. In fact, most of Mickey and Mallory’s depicted violent acts are only shown, replayed or recreated with television aesthetic. The the films last scene of the film, Mickey and Mallory are shown as if a channel surfing viewer has begun to flip between channels, scanning through a variety of images from current news headlines to recurring images from the film itself, which serves I believe as an intended metaphor, revealing the films concepts of the necessary co-dependent frenzy build up and sensationalized by the engine as a whole. But worst still, with the general public’s ever growing blood thirsty appetite, this morbid cycle of entertainment continues, but at what cost. review by T.C Bryan- tyronebryan@gmail.com mailto:tyronebryan@gmail.comshapeimage_1_link_0
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Says T.C Bryan