The original screenplay for the movie was written by Quentin Tarantino and later revised by Stone, Richard Rutowski, and David Veloz. While much of the dialouge is word for word, the revisions change the focus of the film from journalist Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) to Mickey and Mallory. The two went from being a normal married couple who suddenly decide to go on a killing spree to unwed social outcasts who were molested and beaten by their parents. Tarantino—unhappy with the rewritten version—publicly disowned the script and asked that his name be removed from the screenwriting credits. He subsequently received a "story by" credit.
The film intends to highlight the sensationalised way crimes are depicted in the media and the way some killers have been glamorized by the media. Ironically, however, the film was criticized for its excessively graphic and violent content.
The film opens with Mickey Knox (Harrelson) and his girlfriend Mallory (Lewis) in a roadside cafe. Mallory is offended when a hick tries to hit on her. He asks her to dance, she dances for a short while. Mallory then punches him in the face and kicks him several times, embarrassing him. He tries to fight back, but is easily put down by Mallory. She jumps on him and stomps on his face to kill him, shocking and humiliating the man. Mickey, meanwhile, stabs two other customers and shoots the chef and the waitress (with a drawn-out bulletime sequence). They leave one witness alive, as is their custom, to "tell the tale."
After the titles, there is a flashback sequence to how the murderous pair met up: Mickey was a delivery man who turned up at the house where Mallory lived with her physically and sexually abusive father (Rodney Dangerfield), her mother, and Kevin, her younger brother. The scene is portrayed as a sitcom with a canned laughter track, the "audience" laughing hardest when Mallory is subjected to lewd comments and molestation by her repulsive father. When Mickey arrives with a delivery of beef, he falls in love with Mallory and whisks her away on a date, stealing her father's car in the process. Mickey is arrested and imprisoned for car-theft, but escapes and returns to Mallory's house. The two kill her father by drowning him in the fishtank, and burn her mother alive in her bed. They spare her ten-year-old brother. Mickey then takes Mallory away with him.
Back in the present the pair continue their crime-spree (which bears several parallels to Bonnie and Clyde), slaughtering their way across the southwest United States and ultimately claiming fifty-two victims. Following them are two characters who have an obsessive interest in Mickey and Mallory for the purposes of acquiring fame and glory, as well as furthering their own careers. The first is a policeman, Detective Jack Scagnetti (Sizemore), who is seemingly in love with Mallory. Scagnetti wants to achieve hero status by capturing the pair, though it is plainly revealed that Scagnetti has a lifelong obsession with serial killers after seeing his mother shot and killed by Charles Whitman when he was five. The second is journalist Wayne Gale (Downey) hosts a show called 'American Maniacs', profiling serial killers in a blatantly sensationalist way. Various clips of his program on Mickey and Mallory are shown, with Gale sounding outraged as he details the pair's crimes, although off-air he clearly regards their crimes as a fantastic way of boosting his show's ratings. It is Gale who is mostly responsible for elevating Mickey and Mallory into heroes, with his show featuring interviews with people expressing their admiration for the mass-killers as if they were film stars.
While lost in the desert, Mickey and Mallory are taken in by a Navajo man (known as "Old Indian") and his grandson. After the duo fall asleep, the Old Indian begins chanting beside the fire, invoking nightmares in Mickey about his abusive father and mother. Mickey wakes up in a rage and shoots Old Indian before he realizes what he is doing. Mallory and Mickey are both traumatized, marking the first time the couple feel guilty for a murder. Mallory exclaims, "You killed life!" implying Old Indian was more worthy of living than their previous victims. While running from the scene through the desert, the two are bitten repeatedly by rattlesnakes.
They go to a drugstore to find snakebite antidote, but the police interfere and a gunfight ensues, ending when Scagnetti captures them at gunpoint. The film then jumps ahead one year. After a surreal trial that is shown in a flashback in clips from 'American Maniacs', the homicidal couple have been imprisoned but are shortly due to be shipped to a mental hospital after being declared insane.
Scagnetti arrives at the prison and meets up with Warden McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones) and the two devise a plan to get rid of Mickey and Mallory: McClusky will arrange for Scagnetti to transport the Knoxs to the mental hospital. Alone with the pair during transport, Scagnetti will shoot and kill them claiming that they were trying to escape. Gale is also at the prison and persuades Mickey to agree to a live interview to air immediately after the Super Bowl. At the time, Mallory is held in solitary confinement elsewhere in the prison, awaiting her transport to the mental hospital.
As planned, Mickey is interviewed by Gale. He gives a speech about how crime is a normal part of humanity, describes enlightenment through murder and declares himself a "natural born killer." His words inspire the other inmates (who are watching the interview on TV in the recreation room) and incite them to riot. During the riot, the inmates subdue, torture, and murder nearly all of the prison guards and their inmate informants.
Warden McClusky heads down to the control room, leaving Mickey alone with Gale, the film crew and several guards. After elbow-smashing a guard in the face and stealing his shotgun, Mickey kills most of the guards and takes the survivors and film crew hostage. He leads them through the prison riot to find Mallory. Gale follows, giving a live television interview as people are slaughtered all around him. Meanwhile, Mallory is being savagely beaten in her cell by Scagnetti for refusing to submit to his attempts at seduction (for which she attacked him). Still live on national television, Mickey engages in a short Mexican Standoff with Scagnetti, eventually feigning concession to lower Scagnetti's guard so that Mallory can stab him in the throat with a fork. Scagnetti is shot by Mallory shortly after, with his own gun.
After being rescued by a mysterious prisoner named Owen (Arliss Howard), Mickey and Mallory take cover in a blood-splattered shower-room. By this time Gale has snapped and has shot a number of prison guards himself, finding the killing a thrill. Warden McClusky is outside the shower room with dozens of guards. Obsessed with killing Mickey and Mallory, McClusky threatens to storm the shower room, despite the protests of his guards who insist that there are more pressing problems, namely the hundreds of other rioting inmates heading their way.
Mickey and Mallory, together with their savior, Owen, eventually manage to escape, holding guns to the heads of Wayne Gale and a prison-guard hostage, Gale's camera still capturing everything. After Mickey and Mallory flee, McClusky and his guards are massacred by hordes of inmates who eventually burst through into the area. In the director's cut of the film, there is a shot of McClusky's head on a pike.
In a rural location Mickey and Mallory give a final interview to Wayne Gale before - much to his surprise and horror - they execute him, capturing it on the camera that is still transmitting live images of the event all across the country (their one survivor).
Figures and tropes
TV/Media
Televisions dominate this film, both with real television sets and with television images playing on the sky, windows, or the sides of passing buildings. The film is shot in an unprecedented variety of styles, with a number of different types of film, all intercut and overlayed. The entire narrative is structured as a television story, both in the way we watch it and in the way the characters think about their own stories. Some of the more obvious examples of the characters' TV-filtered narratives include the flashback sequence where Mickey met Mallory, called I Love Mallory, where the reality of Mallory's unloving and abusive home is set against the canned laughter and "aw shucks" attitude of 1950s sitcoms, and where Mickey breaks out of the work camp the scene shifts to a Western, which inspires him to steal a horse and ride out against the coming tornado. Much of the pair's violence is only shown as replayed or recreated on television. During the prison interview, Mickey's head is shown talking on a little television in an idealized 1950s Leave it to Beaver living room and on the prison television. The last scene of the film flicks away from Mickey and Mallory as if the viewer has begun to flip channels. It flicks through a variety of images including recurring images interspersed through the film, the O.J. Simpson trial, and the burning Branch Davidian compound. This effectively places the viewer at the center of the film's moral quandary, asking what the viewer is responsible for creating and what demons are lurking in the viewer's own media consumption.
Frankenstein
Explaining why he's going to shoot Wayne Gale, Mickey says "Frankenstein had to kill Dr. Frankenstein." the statement being that they didn't truly become monsters until the Media made them monstrous.
Snakes
One of the first images in the film is of a rattlesnake. The couple exchange wedding rings of intertwined snakes, and Mickey has a tattoo of two snakes forming a heart on his chest. There are recurring shots of a seven headed dragon, like the one depicted in the Book of Revelation. Mickey and Mallory first meet a real snake at the Navajo's. The rattlesnake is coiled in the corner, a scene which Mickey recalls with fondness and admiration in his prison interview. The Navajo tells a story in his native Navajo about a woman offended at a snake that bit her, to which the snake replies "Look bitch, you knew I was a snake." The pair are bitten by a seeming field of rattlesnakes, which leads them to the drug store (a neon sign of Caduceus of Mercury) where they are captured. Also when Mallory and Mickey cut themselves on the bridge to show their love to each other, their blood becomes animated and changes into a red and green snake, entwined and hissing at each other.
Nature
Mickey uses nature and evolution to justify his killings, saying that "A deer don't know why he's a deer and a wolf don't know why he's a wolf. God just made 'em that way." He explains that he is the next step in evolution, and that he's a "natural born killer." Shots of nature open the film and occur throughout the film, set both on a television and in nature, with a violent or disturbing undertone.
Yin and Yang
Mickey and Mallory have Yin and Yang tattoos on opposite arms. Mickey's tattoo is opposite and below another tattoo of the face of Christ. Mallory's tattoo is opposite and above a tattoo of a scorpion. Mickey's left earring is a Yin Yang.
Green
A glowing lime green light is used throughout the film to denote sickness, either in the mind or body. It first appears in the film's opening sequence, as lights in the diner jukebox. Green is also present in the key lime pie Mickey orders. It appears again predominantly when Mallory kills a gas station attendant, and absorbs almost the entire screen during the drug store sequence. Lime green lights later make a less pronounced appearance during the riot sequence.
666
666 pops up in certain areas throughout the film - for example Route 666 and a brief glimpse of a newspaper a patron, who will later appear in the prison riot scene as Owen (Arliss Howard), is holding in the first scene.
Serial killers/Mass murderers emulating the film
Several murderers are alleged to have been inspired by the film Natural Born Killers:
18-year-olds Sarah Edmondson and her boyfriend Benjamin Darras supposedly watched the film before carrying out a robbery that resulted in murder. Relatives of one victim filed a lawsuit against Stone. (see External Links for article relating to these incidents.)
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold of the Columbine High School Massacre were fans of the film. They used the acronym "NBK" as a code for their mission: "God I can’t wait till they die. I can taste the blood now – NBK" and "the holy April morning of NBK" are just a few examples. Also, in an undated journal entry, Klebold wrote about his options. "I'm stuck in humanity. Maybe going 'NBK' w. eric [sic]is the way to break free," he wrote, referring to the scheduled rampage.
Seventeen-year old Nathan K. Martinez shot and killed his stepmother and half-sister while they slept at their home in Bluffdale, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City in October, 1994. He was apprehended several days later while sleeping in a motel in O'Neill, Nebraska, following a nationwide manhunt. He was obsessed with the film and had seen it dozens of times. He had shaved his head and wore the same style of round sunglasses that the "Mickey" character did in the film. His father and older brother had left early that morning for a hunting trip.
Angus Wallen and Kara Winn, both 27 watched Natural Born Killers the night before murdering 22-year-old Brandon Murphy. They shot him, robbed him, and then set his body and apartment on fire in Jacksonville, Florida on Dec. 18, 2004. The crime resembles one part in the movie in which Micky, after killing Mallory's father with a tire iron, kills her mother by tying her to her bed and setting her on fire.
Box office, reaction, and controversy
In its opening weekend, the film grossed a total of $11,166,687 in 1,510 theaters. As of January 122007, the film has grossed a total of $50,282,766 domestically.[1]
Natural Born Killers however was dismissed by most critics holding a 48 percent "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.8 rating at the Internet Movie Database with 35,629 votes.
Roger Ebert, a film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "Seeing this movie once is not enough. The first time is for the visceral experience, the second time is for the meaning."[2] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post claimed that "Stone's sensibility is white-hot and personal. As much as he'd like us to believe that his camera is turned outward on the culture, it's vividly clear that he can't resist turning it inward on himself. This wouldn't be so troublesome if Stone didn't confuse the public and the private."[3]Janet Maslin from The New York Times wrote,
"for all its surface passions, Natural Born Killers never digs deep enough to touch the madness of such events, or even to send them up in any surprising way. Mr. Stone's vision is impassioned, alarming, visually inventive, characteristically overpowering. But it's no match for the awful truth."[4]
The film was controversial throughout its entire history due to the graphic violence and confusing moral values that have inspired many serial killers similar to the 1971 film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. Stone kept reminding the public that the film was a satire on how serial killers are adored by the media for their horrific actions and the film in no way inspires sociopathic or any homicidal behaviour. The film initially had an NC-17 rating. Stone toned down the violence and the film was re-rated R. The director's cut edition contains the NC-17 rated version along with other deleted scenes.
Major controversy rose again during the Columbine High School Massacre. Shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were reported as fans of the movie using the film's acronym as a code in their home videos and journals. The rants in Eric Harris’ journal entries bear many similarities to Mickey's philosophy that he is only human, and humans are animals that rely on their animal instincts.
Kimveer Gill the killer in the Dawson College Shooting was also a fan of the film and did similar actions as the Columbine High School Massacre.
There was also some controversy about the camera techniques. The film is filmed in a frenzied and psychedelic style consisting of black and white, animation, and other strange color schemes. The techniques were allegedly inspired by Stone's drug use during the making of the film. This was revealed on the behind the scenes documentary shown on the DVD versions.
The UK video release was also delayed due to a shooting at a school in Dunblane, Scotland. It was passed '18' uncut for video release on 26 February 1996, but a few weeks later the shooting took place and the released was delayed until 2001, with the producers citing pressure from groups as a reason to not release it. Strangely, it was actually shown on the "Five" TV channel while the video was still unreleased. In 2002 the full 'Director's Cut' version of the film, restoring the 3 minutes of cuts required in the US in 1994, was submitted to the BBFC and classified '18' uncut.
Trivia
Woody Harrelson's father, Charles Harrelson, was a convicted hitman, who in 1996 attempted to escape prison, after being sentenced to life for the murder of a judge.
The prison riot was filmed during four weeks at Stateville Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois. In the first two weeks on location at the prison, the extras were actual inmates with rubber weapons. After a lock-down, the Illinois Department of Corrections required the production to use paid extras from the outside for the remaining two weeks.[citation needed]
Downey admitted that his use of an Australian accent was a technique he adopted to accentuate his character's apparent dignity.
In the opening scene Mickey uses a knife made by famous collector's knifemaker Gil Hibben. The knife is known as the Highlander bowie.
The fate of the inmate known only as Owen was not explained in the original theatrical release; it is implied he is some sort of guardian angel. In the first scene in the film, Owen briefly appears sitting at a table in the cafe, but his image fades out and vanishes. In the special edition DVD, an alternative ending was shown, where Mickey and Mallory are both executed by Owen.
The shoot time for the entire film was 56 days. The editing process took nearly a year.
The film contains as many as 3,000 edits. Most feature films only contain about 700.
Rodney Dangerfield, Edie McClurg and Robert Downey, Jr. had all earlier appeared in the comedy film Back To School.
The phrase "natural born killer" was actually used in Truman Capote's nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, allegedly said by Lowell Lee Andrews, who murdered his family and was hanged in the Kansas State Penitentiary; whether Tarantino took the phrase from him or it is coincidental is unclear.
The character of Mickey was inspired by real-life spree killer Charles Starkweather.
Tori Amos refused to allow the film to feature her song "Me and a Gun," which is an intimate account of a rape she experienced at age 21. She later commented on Oliver Stone's insensitivity in her song "A Sorta Fairytale."[citation needed]
In the scene in which Mallory breaks Scagnetti's nose, Juliette Lewis actually broke Tom Sizemore's nose.
In the escape from the prison, Mallory says she wants to "go down there and go out in a hail of bullets", a scene which is reminiscent of the frozen final image of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Mallory's younger brother Kevin was played by Oliver Stone's son, Sean.
Sterling Hayden's character in the motion picture The Godfather shares the same last name (McCluskey) with Dwight. Both McCluskey characters are corrupt/misguided individuals in prominent careers in law enforcement/corrections.
Significant parts of Scarface (which was written by Oliver Stone) are shown through motel TVs. The scene shown is widely known for its violence.
In addition to the Illinois Department of Corrections, Warner Bros. and the production quietly negotiated with head prisoners for their cooperation, which yielded cable television for certain inmates.[citation needed]
In the PC Game Half-Life: Opposing Forces, many of the soldiers that Corporal Shephard teams up with say, "I'm a Natural Born Alien Killer" after killing an alien.
After the murderer of one of novelist John Grisham's friends cited Natural Born Killers as an inspiration, Grisham spoke out against Oliver Stone and the film itself. When Warner Bros. was looking for a lead for the film adaptation of Grisham's A Time To Kill and suggested Woody Harrelson, Grisham, who had director and cast approval, said Harrelson would never be in a film he had anything to do with.
It is the only screenplay with a Quentin Tarantino "Story By" credit that he did not write the screenplay. His original screenplay was bought and rewritten. He's commented that Stone turned it into the kind of film he would have liked had it not been his script.
McCluskey and Scagnetti discuss Lee Harvey Oswald, and mention that he was a great shot. In JFK (film), also directed by Stone, it is purported that Oswald was a terrible shot. Scagnetti and McCluskey were probably being ironic, thus endorsing the theory of another shooter.
References in film or other media
The band McClusky is named after the warden in homage to the film.
The english language adaptation of the Battle Royale manga by TokyoPop extensively references Natural Born Killers in issue 13; chapter 97 is actually named Natural Born Killers even.
Ben Elton's Popcorn includes the opening shot and discussion of the opening scene. It also centers around the effect of media on mass murderers after they've killed.
Alternative versions and deleted scenes
When the film was submitted to the ratings board it was initially given an "NC-17" rating. Stone then re-edited the film several times to reduce the rating to an "R". Among the scenes excised were:
Mickey raping a female hostage in the hotel room after Mallory storms out (Woody Harrelson persuaded Oliver Stone for this exclusion as he thought it may demean his persona).
A shot through the bullet hole in Wayne Gale's hand after Mallory shoots him.
A quick shot of Warden McClusky's head on a pike after he's overrun during the prison riot.
A guard being thrown into an oven of the prison's kitchen during the riot.
Additionally, other scenes totaling nearly 60 minutes were included on the VHS and DVD release of the film by Trimark Home Video:
A deranged inmate (Denis Leary) delivers a rapid-fire monologue about how the Pittsburgh Pirates are responsible for Mickey and Mallory's killing spree.
A courtroom scene showing Mickey questioning one of the survivors of his and Mallory's rampage, Grace Mulberry (Ashley Judd). She recounts the night that Mickey killed all of her girlfriends and her brother. After Mickey is done questioning her, he attacks her with a pencil and stabs her to death with it.
The Hun Brothers (played by the Barbarian Brothers), professional body builders and still-living victims of the Knoxes' killing spree, talk about their admiration of their attackers. The Knoxes had used chainsaws to cut off the Brothers's legs. (Ironically, the Knoxes' admiration for the Huns is what kept them from killing the twins.)
After Mickey and Mallory escape and kill Wayne, they are seen riding down the road in a van with Owen, who asks to accompany them. When Mickey informs him that they will be dropping him off, Owen begins making sexual overtones towards Mallory. He then produces a gun and Mickey and Mallory realize that he is their "demon" incarnate. Owen fatally shoots Mickey, then turns the gun on Mallory; the screen cuts to black, accompanied by Mallory screaming, before cutting to a shot of the van driving away into the desert. In an introductory sequence, Oliver Stone says that he wanted Mickey and Mallory to get their comeuppance, but that it couldn't come from society or the law; rather, it had to come from "one of their own" (ie, another psychopath).
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