As I pointed out in my comments for the highly overrated Man Bites Dog, the idea of a motion picture attacking the media for sensationalising violence is not only morally questionable, but also a harsh contradiction. Films are also a form of media product, and the thought of a film-maker allowed free reign to depict violence as explicitly as he/she wants in the name of satire seems like a misjudgement on the part of that particular film maker, just how far can they go before their attack on exploitative violence becomes exploitative violence in its self. And that is one of the issues with Natural Born Killers. The idea of Natural Born Killers, or at least the idea that Oliver Stone brought to the table when he took over the project, is the public's fascination with fame, and just how far would someone go to get their fifteen minutes. Although Stone's visual style contradicts his own ideas, filming the proceedings with an almost comic depiction of violence (bullet point of views and sitcom formatted incest are all scored to cheesy Tom & Jerry style music) his message and intent seems much more (self) important. We've seen a barrage of reality TV shows and so-called docu-soaps of late (and I keep coming back to this), focusing on a whole host of boring individuals clowning in front of the camera believing they are saying something so important that we (the audience) should be hanging on their every word.
But that's the problem, shows like Big Brother, Temptation Island, and in the UK shows like Reps and Pop Idol promote the message that everyone, no matter how un-talented and boring should be given the chance to go out into every living room in the nation. They also show just how willing the public are to humiliate themselves on these programmes, Pop Idol for instance showed us some of the most desperate bunch of losers ever seen, people where actually turned away on the grounds that they were too ugly, and they accepted that. And then we have a show like Reps, which follows a group of club reps at a holiday resort aboard. The stars of the show are a bunch of common losers, who spew foulmouthed obscenities amongst a hail of vomit and alcohol, not to mention every single young person exposing themselves to the camera. Now I may sound like I'm over-reacting, but this sort of thing only promotes not only a negative review of that person, but also the decline of television entertainment and as some would say, the decline of civilization (ok, that one does go a little far).
That's the issue at hand with Natural Born Killers, that people buy this kind of garbage, that people are actually interested in the lives of a bunch of drop-outs, who, although a sad fact, will never do any thing of use with their lives again, ever. And that is what culminates at the climax of Natural Born Killers, as the audience sits mortified by the idea of a televised riot in which respected news journalists get involved with the killing. Like I said, Stone doesn't do the greatest job of promoting this issue, because as I also pointed out, the entire notion of film condemning television is a pot/kettle scenario, they two go hand in hand. But thank god for a film maker who is not afraid to kick-up a storm. Stone doesn't give the audience any easy answers, nor does he make the viewing experience all that relaxing. Black & white footage is crosscut with colour, video spliced with film, 16mm with 35mm, animation and digital effects, each, not only signify a change over in the character mentality, but also a strange channel surfing feeling, never allowing the viewer to settle in one place.
I think I've already used up far too much room, on what would appear to be another useless diatribe as I try to summaries this challenging piece of work. Although not entirely successful, and it does raise far to many moral issues that it can handle, Natural Born Killers is still a fresh and daring film, that should be seen in it's Director's cut format, for the interested only. 7/10
But that's the problem, shows like Big Brother, Temptation Island, and in the UK shows like Reps and Pop Idol promote the message that everyone, no matter how un-talented and boring should be given the chance to go out into every living room in the nation. They also show just how willing the public are to humiliate themselves on these programmes, Pop Idol for instance showed us some of the most desperate bunch of losers ever seen, people where actually turned away on the grounds that they were too ugly, and they accepted that. And then we have a show like Reps, which follows a group of club reps at a holiday resort aboard. The stars of the show are a bunch of common losers, who spew foulmouthed obscenities amongst a hail of vomit and alcohol, not to mention every single young person exposing themselves to the camera. Now I may sound like I'm over-reacting, but this sort of thing only promotes not only a negative review of that person, but also the decline of television entertainment and as some would say, the decline of civilization (ok, that one does go a little far).
That's the issue at hand with Natural Born Killers, that people buy this kind of garbage, that people are actually interested in the lives of a bunch of drop-outs, who, although a sad fact, will never do any thing of use with their lives again, ever. And that is what culminates at the climax of Natural Born Killers, as the audience sits mortified by the idea of a televised riot in which respected news journalists get involved with the killing. Like I said, Stone doesn't do the greatest job of promoting this issue, because as I also pointed out, the entire notion of film condemning television is a pot/kettle scenario, they two go hand in hand. But thank god for a film maker who is not afraid to kick-up a storm. Stone doesn't give the audience any easy answers, nor does he make the viewing experience all that relaxing. Black & white footage is crosscut with colour, video spliced with film, 16mm with 35mm, animation and digital effects, each, not only signify a change over in the character mentality, but also a strange channel surfing feeling, never allowing the viewer to settle in one place.
I think I've already used up far too much room, on what would appear to be another useless diatribe as I try to summaries this challenging piece of work. Although not entirely successful, and it does raise far to many moral issues that it can handle, Natural Born Killers is still a fresh and daring film, that should be seen in it's Director's cut format, for the interested only. 7/10
