I'm watching the director's cut of Natural Born Killers for the first time in about 15 years. You know the way the stuff that shocked us back in the day always seems blunted and tame when you go back to it after an age. That is one maxim that is not absolute. NBK is a film that still has the power to shock and some of director Oliver Stone's decisions throughout are ones he'd definitely not get away with these days ie Mallory's horrifying, abuse filled family life that's shot like an 80's sitcom with Rodney Dangerfield as a leering Al Bundy type taken to the absolute limit. It's a brave choice but jesus you'd feel fair icky watching it.
You forget how chaotic the whole thing is, the constant film stock changes, the flash cutting, insane edits, coca cola ads laid over murder and mayhem. 30 minutes in you'd have a headache and 5 minutes later something audacious happens to blow the ache away. It's so unlike anything since. It's definitely the pinnacle of the extreme side of mainstream cinema. Even down to it's "heroes" which are most definitely supposed to be Mickey and Mallory. They're painted, in a dubious light, as being the purest beings in the film, Mallory especially. A hard sell for a film that starts with her beating a man to death while Mickey guns down and knifes everyone else in sight. But then we meet the rest of the cast - Robert Downey Jr, Tom Sizemore and Tommy Lee Jones, a crime reporter, a detective and a prison boss respectively, three people who'd be the good guys in any other film but here they are venal filth, corrupt, slimy. 3 fuckers designed to make natural born killers look good. As a social commentary on the bad guys it's perfect. Imagine if twitter had been around when this came out? People would have definitely been on #TeamMickeyandMallory
I stuck this on for a bit of nostalgia. Somehow in this chaos we're living through it feels as vital as ever.
Wow.
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