Natural Born Killers

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One of Oliver Stones masterpieces, Natural Born Killers, caused severe controversy due to the graphic, but sincere portrayal of how the media devilishly feeds on violence and how the people of the country respond to these glamorized acts of wrong doing. Although the nation has condemned the movie for its shockingly violent scenes, critics like Roger Ebert and devoted Stone fans like Jason O’Brien have a different perspective on the message that this movie is trying to portray. That is, the simple fact that we, a television based society, have narrowed our variety of entertainment to violence, sex, and sexual violence. A master a satire, Oliver Stone takes film viewers through a twisted tale of two mass murderers, their glorification by a journalist and the nation’s idolization of them.
The techniques used in this film create a feeling of violence beyond that of the actual murders that take place. Through its breakneck rhythm, changing color to black and white and cartoons to television anti-sitcoms, all while showing violent acts of murder and sexual abuse, takes shock to a new level. What makes this film so shocking is the fact that it shows how our nation reacts to such horror. “Stone was attempting to make a film that made us experience the true nature of violence, in order to see how absurd it is when the media makes killers heroes.” (O’Brien) Stone comically portrays Mallory’s childhood as a television sitcom. Her father’s abusive words towards her and her mother are the punch lines that the crowd is most pleased with. “ Maybe Stone meant his movie as a warning about where we where headed, but because of the Simpson trial it plays an indictment of the way we are now.” (Ebert) This clearly is a mirror image of our nation’s behavior during similar instances like the O.J. Simpson trial. During this time court TV was more of a soap opera than a trial of a man suspected of viciously killing two people.
One important scene in the film is the portrayal of Mallory’s home in the style of an American family sitcom. Oliver Stone was clearly mocking television shows that our society has grown up watching, like Leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy. On the surface, sitcoms offer merely a sanitized picture of daily life. It represents the American dream, but not the true way of American life. Through this sce...

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...here is enough evidence right there to make Stone a free man. In my opinion, if you are going to blame Stone than you are going to have to blame every producer/director that ever made a violent film. I happen to think that this movie was quite an eye opener to the kind of entertainment we thrive on. It also pointed out how television can subtly blur what is real and what is fantasy.

Works Cited

Ebert, Roger. Chicago Sun Times. 08/26/1994. http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews /1994/08/937174.html
O’Brien, Jason. Oliver Stone: Our Greatest Film Director.
August 9, 1999. http://www.oscarworld.net/stone/
Default.asp?PageId=3
Wager, Lesa. In Defense of Oliver Stone and the Film Industry. August 11, 1999. http://www.oscarworld.net/
Stone/Default.asp?PageId=28
Weinberger, Michael. Natural Born Killers: A Postmodern
Analysis. http://www.users.viocenet.com/weinsb/whole.
Htm

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