FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Oliver Stone - Natural Born Killers 

Natural Born Killers is an indictment of the way we live today. An indictment against our society, which is more interested in scandals or crimes than in anything else. That's why the "heroes" in Oliver Stone's film Mickey and Mallory (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) represent the new All Americans. They are mass murderers who wreak havoc all over America and make sure that everyone knows their names. They are looking for recognition for their crimes. Natural Born Killers is not just about their crimes, however, but also about how they are exploited by the media to entertain us. We - the public - are supposed to be electrified and exhilarated. Natural Born Killers is about this emptiness, this moral void. Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis are able to convey this amorality, this contempt for the human condition (and they are also very scary). At one point, a lawman tries to intimidate Mallory. He throws his cigarette on the ground, she puts it out. With her bare foot. But as described, it's not just about the two killers, it's about the media's lust for their atrocities. Mickey and Mallory are the most famous people in America. Superstars! They print T-shirts and found fan clubs. A particularly bloodthirsty journalist (Robert Downey Jr.) wants to hug them constantly because of it. Likewise, Mickey and Mallory's lawyers react enthusiastically to taking on such a famous case. A touch of hell that excites America. In fact, though, Natural Born Killers is much less violent than I remembered it. The film pushes the pace and uses various visual gimmicks that were hip in the 90s. The basic framework is the satire of screenwriter Quentin Tarantino, whose early work is marked by road movies with killing lovers (Natural Born Killers or True Romance). Oliver Stone adds his breakneck cuts and hyperactive camera. Sometimes the film runs in black and white, then in garish colors, sometimes in 35mm, then in Super 8, sometimes animation, sometimes newsreel, etc. etc. But probably Oliver Stone was right to present his material in such a way as to properly stir up the good culture bourgeois. He hit a nerve and succeeded in making a wonderful production. Seeing Natural Born Killers today, however, is less about the images than the message. Tarantino's script distorts the world into a single cesspool of sin. And everyone is horny for sin! It is a murderous satire of violence and crime. Many murderers were abused as children, so Mallory's horrible childhood (with comedian Rodney Dangerfield as the horrible father) is also shown. Mallory's father is nothing more than a drunken pig who humiliates his wife while groping their daughter. We experience all of this like a sitcom with recorded laughs because, after all, everything is funny to a live audience. And the brutal prison guard (Tommy Lee Jones) also enjoys his appearance on TV, where he is allowed to show off his prison like a modern slave plantation. And the bloodthirsty reporters? They think they're immune to Mickey and Mallory's violence because, after all, they're holding the camera.... So it's not enough to see Natural Born Killer once. Only the second time do you go to the level of content behind all the flash of the camera. Because we are all fascinated by such violence. Finally, a topic where everyone can have a say! We're no longer repulsed by violence, but are thinking about how to present it in an entertaining way.