I didn’t know anything about Natural Born Killers prior to watching
it but saw that an angry looking Woody Harrelson was on the blu-ray cover and
that was enough to sell it to me. During the frenzied pre credit sequence I
thought to myself that it looked like the most Tarantino-esque film I’d ever
seen. I didn’t realise at the time of course that the film was actually loosely
based on a script written by Quentin Tarantino and that he received a ‘story
by’ credit. The script though, was written by director Oliver Stone, Dale Veloz
and Richard Rutowski and is set around a manic killing spree. Mickey Knox
(Harrelson) and his wife Mallory (Juliette Lewis) travel around the South
Western United States, randomly killing seemingly for the pleasure it brings.
Both central characters suffered traumatic childhoods but enjoy the fame and
notoriety that their actions bring.
The film is spliced together in a
fairly linear structure but has the overarching look of a collage. A multitude
of camera angles, effects and styles are used and the estimated 3,000 cuts
necessary to piece everything together took around eleven months to edit.
Camera angles and shooting styles will change from second to second in what
feels like a psychedelic whirlwind. The effect is that Stone creates a movie
that seems to surround you on all sides rather than emanate from the TV screen
and it keeps you both off balance and highly entertained throughout.
